Michael Jackson

So as you all have heard by this point, Michael Jackson has bit the dust. He was huge down in Chile. He is on every channel just dancing away now. My host mom, Jaja was way sad. She loves the Thriller song. Now when I watch the news instead of just relying on pictures to know what they are talking about I hear blah blah blah Michael Jackson and I know the basis of the story. At last, I can understand the news down here. The man really could dance though. It's too bad he was so wierd.

The second session of summer classes has started and I enjoy not being the new kid in town. I know my teachers already and where my classes are. It is nice to not have to worry about that. I have found myself understanding a little more of conversations that I over hear. I love that. Ale said that before you are able to speak you start to understand everything. I am a far cry from understanding everything but it is good to know that I am on the right track.

I got super sick this week and I did not enjoy it. I had a little bit of a cold coming into the weekend but then I got chills and aches along with it for this weekend. I took some Nyquil but I think that was a bad move because it freaked my Chilean family out when I slept all day and all night. After the drug wore off I went for a walk to got my body moving again. I felt good to get out after being in bed for so long, and the aches and pains were gone for the most part. Good old Nyquil.

I love you all.

Elder Oaks

So Elder Oaks was in town and decided to do a fireside for the young adults in Vina Del Mar. Guess who got to go! I did! Did you know that his current wife did not get married until she was in her mid 50's? I thought that was interesting. They spoke a lot about being single and getting married. Elder Oaks said that we need to date and we don't get dates by just sitting at home and praying for them. So that is what I have been doing wrong for all these years :). Here in Chile I have been getting out. The night life scene here is huge. Every day of the week you can go out dancing and to the clubs. This is the last week that the other USU students are in Chile so we have been going out a lot these last two weeks. I even found a pretend boyfriend on Friday. I will back up a little from that though.

The school here has an intercambio program where students studying spanish get together with english speaking students. Pretty much the chilean students get assigned gringos to look after and we all get to practice speaking in our desired language. My group got Farrah and Carlos. they are both really nice and completely fluent in english. They just mostly speak in english to us but we try to respond with our spanglish. The two of them have been taking us USU students around and showing us the fun youthful things to do in Chile, like which clubs are cool and which places are boring. It is nice to have somebody have your back that speaks the language. Well, last Friday Laura, Carl, and I went out with Carlos and later met up with Farrah. We were dancing off and on but I am a horrible dancer so I was a little hesitant to really get out there and dance. I had sat down and that's when Farrah came in with his friend that was having a birthday. His friend was very very drunk. That is pretty common here for young people to do on the weekends. Because he was so drunk he was being pretty silly. He asked me to dance and I accepted cause I wanted to dance and this way I figured he wouldn't notice how bad of a dancer I was because he could barely walk. We got on the dance floor and he still couldn't walk, but he could dance. It was pretty amazing. He was complementing me and telling me that I have beautiful eyes. It was very flatting. Anytime I need a little pick me up I just have to find a drunk guy, I guess. So that is my pretend pololo story.

I am getting used to being in Chile and things are getting a little more routine. I don't have to search around for bus stops as much and I know where I need to turn and what people expect of me in public. I don't have to pay attention to every road as much as I used to because I recognize where I am at. Also, the lock at the gate to the house is a little tricky and for the first three weeks I couldn't get it open without a fight but now I can usually get it with only two or three tries. I am loving life here. I am starting to understand a little more and if I search far enough back into my mind I can usually find the word that I am looking for. I still sound like a gringa but I think that might be permanent. We shall see.

another week of learning

This week I have learned some cool tricks that make some of the irregularities in the language a little easier. I also leaned a lot of new things about the political system in Chile. I have one profesor that is very liberal and one that is very concervative and it has been interesting to hear them both talk about Augosto Pinochet and Chilean history. Seeing both sides made me understand politics in the USA a little bit better.

I went to institute tonight and it was really good. I realized that I had not been praying for the gift of tonges! I am going to repent and get on that tonight. I am enjoying my time here but I feel like I am at a standstill as far as understanding things goes. My familia had cable installed in my room today and I watched part of a show in spanish. I liked being able to listen to what they were saying and not have it super fast or super slow. Ale said that the news is really good to watch because they speak very clearly. As soon as I can understand enough spanish to figure out the guide I will give that a shot.

On Monday I realized that I made it home from school without thinking about it. Normally I have to process each step of what I am doing and on Monday it all became routine. It was nice. I felt a little more like a belong here.

Today before school my madre rewelcomed me to Vina and told me that today was a regular day here. She said before that I brought the sunshine with me :) but for today at least the cold was back. She had me wear a wool coat and gloves and a scarf and a hat. I felt like a stuffed turkey. It turned out not to be that cold outside and so I felt a little rediculous, but once I had been sitting in my classroom for a while I got really cold and was greatful for the winter gear. It is very expensive to have indoor heating here and so most places do not have it. Also, they do not have very big pipes here and so you have to put your toilet paper in the garbage and not in the toilet. That was a big shock for me the first couple of times. And when it comes to taking the bathroom trash out I am grateful for a maid that does it.

All in all things are going great and I can't wait to understand a whole TV show in spanish!!

Beautiful

Today was an amazing day. First of all I was able to go to church and it is always nice to start a day off on a spiritual high. Then I was able to go horse back riding along the beach. It was so beautiful. My horse's name was Connautao... or something like that. She was a beautiful cream colored horse. I got to ride as the sun was going down. It was amazing. Looking over the ocean into the sunset on the back of a horse. I bet you can't top that:).

Yesterday the girls from USU and I had a girl's night out because one of the girls had her fiance break up with her over Skype. Sounds like a great guy, right? We talked about politics and the gospel and boys and everything over nice big bowls of ice cream. It was really enjoyable because all of us are so different and have different points of view on so many issues but it makes us over all just a really well rounded group. Dani is a sociology major too and I especially liked talking to her about the economy and politics. She wouldn't mind a socialist government and I am far from that but it was nice to just apply what I have been learning all these years in school to a real conversation and being able to express my opinions and have them make sense. My spanish, not so much in the making sense category, but I am trying. I have been able to get people to understand me when I ask questions or go to buy something at the grocery store. Slowly but surely, right?

I did have my official culture shock moment on Friday. The USU group changed the meeting place for the night and so I got lost trying to get to where we had originally planned. Then my Chilean phone didn't have minutes so I didn't bring it along and I couldn't get anyone to understand me or help me. I just got a really big ice cream brownie thing and went to town on it. Two big helping of ice cream in one weekend. It has been a tasty weekend! I came home after the ice cream and was just crying. My madre was home and was trying to comfort me. With my broken spanish I was able to get out that I got lost and my friends left me. She thought I was super bummed cause I got left behind, really I think it was just my 'what have I gotten myself into' moment that is pretty common from what I hear. It turns out that the group had been calling my phone all night to let me know about the change. I am buying phone minutes the second I get out of school tomorrow. After a goodnights sleep and a little run the next morning everything was better and life was back in perspective. I am gonna get this language down!

pictures

i am working on posting pictures but it is a work in progress. come back later if you can't read and need pictures

coming along

I have been in Chile for a week and a half now. The language is coming along, not as quickly as I would like, but it is coming along. My Chilean mom and I have had a little bit of trouble communicating because of the language barrier. She is so sweet and I feel bad that I can't understand everything she is saying. The first day we met she was telling me about the government and history of Chile. Well, I understood that she was talking about history and the government but I some how concluded that she was talking about what her husband used to do before he retired. I was under the impression that he worked for the government and had a pretty high profile job. I asked Ale, in english, more about what her dad did when she and I were alone later on. I told her what I thought her mom had told me and was asking detailed questions about it. She just laughed and laughed. She was like, "I can't leave you and my mom alone together to talk. Today my dad was the president, tomorrow you will make him the pope." It was pretty funny. Madre kept laughing too. So now that is the running joke around here. When Madre and I talk without Ale interpretting she swings by to make sure we are speaking about the same things. We are getting better though. She knows more english than she thought and I know more spanish than I thought. With the use of a dictionary and gestures I think we get the basic idea of what page the other person is on.

I have another funny story about how I need to learn spanish. Yesterday Madre came downstairs in the morning and I was all dressed and ready to go because I got up early to study. Normally they come downstairs and have breakfast ready for when I wake up and then I get to eat it in bed (I am so spoiled, they know it and I know it). Well because I was up she thought I had already eaten breakfast and asked if I wanted more. I thought she was asking me if I wanted to eat. So I said yes and she made me a big ol' bowl of oatmeal. It was very tasty, but then Ale came downstairs and made me more food cause I had only eaten oatmeal. I think that Chileans believe we have a whole breakfast of pancakes and eggs and bacon and the works for breakfast everyday. I don't mind a bigger breakfast though cause then I don't get hungry at school and snacking is never on my mind. All in all I think I ended up eating enough for the whole household. And then if that wasn't enough I ended up getting two 'onces' too some how cause I can't understand what I am saying. They ask if I want to eat and all I understand is the word eat and so I think they are asking if I already ate. Not always the case. They are so good to me though. They are the best family away from my family that I could even have.

Ale is going to try for a natural birth and was talking about essentail oils and things. I whipped out mine. She just kept saying how cool they all were and she wants tips on kinds to get to help with labor. I sure don't know. Any suggestions??? That is brave. If I have kids I plan on having epidurals just as soon as they will let me. Go modern day medicine!

On a medical note and just to let you all know that I have not changed at all I will tell you I had my first normal bowl movement in Chile today! Hooray! It was followed by a super not normal episode though. Someday I will get used to the water. Someday