It's So Cold in the D

What a whirlwind of a week. I got back from Peru and I feel like everything just started up right where I had left it in spite of the fact that I had been gone from Santiago for a week. I never thought I would be SO happy to get back to my little house on Simon Bolivar with my own bed and my own closet full of clothes and my mama's yummy cooking. We got back to Santiago at 4 am on the 17th and I slept in until 3 pm! I woke up, ate something, and then spent the rest of the day in bed recovering from the stresses of the amazing yet trying trip.

The next day was DIECIOCHO which is the Chilean independence day so we went to Parque O'Higgins and also to Parque Ines de Suarez to experience the fondas in two different comunas in Santiago. Basically, we ate our way around the parks and listened to Chilean music and watched the festivities all around us. I ended the night by going over to Karen's house and talking for hours. She is such a great friend--always ready with inspiring advice and a listening ear. I got to meet Juan and Irene who she had lived with for the past 2 months and they gave me food and were just super nice which I am beginning to see is the demeanor of many Chileans who invite you into their home. They are such hospitable people who will stop at nothing to assure that a guest feels comfortable in their home. Que tierno.

The next day I went to Vina del Mar with Francisco and we passed the whole day sitting on the beach talking and later drinking Pisco Sours in a restaurant that overlooked the shore. It's not everyday that you get the chance to spend the entire day speaking with a Chilean friend in Castellano...especially someone who you feel comfortable to mess up in front of and someone who has patience for my speaking. It was a lovely day. After his recent trip to Brazil, he decided that he wasn't going to keep working so much so now he tells me that he has more time for himself. This makes me very happy because he totally deserves it.

On Sunday, I went to church and then went to lunch with Karen and her host "dad" who is actually more like her son because of her maturity and his lack-thereof. We went to an incredibly authentic Chilean restaurant complete with live music from a guitar-playing vaquero, and we were joined by Juan's sobrina and a friend of Karen's who is here for a year named Molly. After lunch, we went back to their house and what started out as having a copete de Chica (fermented grape drink with the same alcohol % as a beer) ended up being a conversation of about 3 hours...no joke. Molly gave me about 4 pages of Chilenismos that I am now using as often as I can, but it was definitely a learning day for me. [But isn't every day? :) ]

On Monday, I had a very nice Rose day in which I woke up early and ran over to the gym that I am now a member of in my neighborhood. I did my cycling class, ran back, took a shower, and ate lunch with the fam. Then by 3 pm or so I finally got out of the house and walked over to the correo to mail some postcards. After that deed was done, I decided to try out this cute sweet shop called El Ingenio and found its warm, rustic atmosphere so appealing that I stayed there long after my frothy Cafe Cortado was finished. Imagine a mom and pop bakery that you find on the side of a road during a long road trip with the smell of coffee and sugar in the air and a women with a bright smile at the counter waiting to fill your heart's desire for goodies. That is the feeling that I got from this place, and I also didn't mind that fact that I had the place to myself for the most part and I was left to write in my journal and look out the window as the rain tapped on the opposite side of the glass as if sutily asking to join me.

Once I decided to leave the coffee shop, I walked back to the correo to mail the few remaining postcards that I had written en El Ingenio and when I exited the correo and started walking down the sidewalk, a car that had been parked there honked at me. I decided to ignore whoever it was honking and continued down the sidewalk until the car pulled up next to me and I look and see it is Maggie! Well, I was excited to see that it was her...especially because it was really raining and I had no umbrella. BUT at that moment that I saw it was her, I stepped off the sidewalk and onto slick mud so all Maggie sees is that I was there one second and gone the next. hehe I totally ate it on the sidewalk on a busy street and me and Maggie had a good laugh reenacting that scene later for Jeremy (new host bro). Que chistoso. Es bueno que yo tenga un buen humor...

On Tuesday, I spend the day at Puente Alto. First I ran into some girls from Mariela's class who begged me to come back to their class that I had visited one day. I did and got to help the kids with their lesson plan, and Mariela who teaches the class at the age of only 24 has an amazing ability to speak English and I really get along well with her and look up to her. After spending time with those kids, I went to the Gastronomy class to talk with my kiddies about my research. They filled out questionaires about my research and now I am just pulling them aside one-by-one and asking them to elaborate on certain things that they put down. It is incredibly interesting to get their views and I plan on starting my paper soon because I really am gaining a lot of information in terms of my research. I am very lucky that I have the opportunity to do this because it is something that really interests me and at the same time the kids are very nice and patient with me AND it gives me a great chance to practice my Spanish. All in all, I am proud of myself. To get to Puente Alto, I have to take my metro line allllll the way to the ennddddd and then get a collective taxi to take me to the school. It takes an hour all said and done...mas o menos. But its worth the trip and I feel lucky to be a part of this school in the mountain outskirts of Santiago. Everytime I am coming back on the metro from Puente Alto, I stop into a mini-mart in the metro station terminal and I have made friends with a woman named Monica who tells me about her day and I tell her about mine. She has a good energy about her and always seems happy to see me. I love people like that.

Then I went to Hermanos Matte but there was confusion with the kids about whether I was still in Peru so they had all gone home. But the trip was saved because I got to tell Mary Cruz all about my Peru trip and I really love my conversations with her. She is such a lovely lady who works too hard but is still always with a positive attitude. After our talk together, I went to my culture class and got to hear about everyone's trips over the week vacation. So many people went to Peru too but we only ran into a select few during our travels. On Wednesday, I went to the gym again, ate lunch with the family, and then went to my medical anthropology class. We have a HUGE research project to tackle independently before the end of the term and it really scares me at times but I am making progress with securing my source so I am going to just forget about the fear for now and focus on first-things-first. I am going to be working with a child physical therapist at the same school in Puente Alto where I have my other research with the gastronomy class. My research topic is: What are the perceptions of patient's disability for the patient him/herself, the physical therapist, and the parents? How do each of these groups view the treatment process and results as well? I am supposed to have about 3 different patients to study for this reseach project and I am going back tomorrow to talk with the physical therapist named Eric.

Thursday was Bioarchaeology class but I decided to head to Starbucks early in the morning to finish rewriting my notes for that class and getting some studying in. It was a lovely way to start my morning and as I walked home from lunch, I couldn't help but feel very accomplished and proud of my self. After another scrumptious lunch with the fam, I went to my Bioarqueology class and I can't help but smile when I think about the fact that despite how difficult/scary that class seemed to me in the beginning and despite of the future work that I will have to do for that class, I am so happy that I have been able to break through that language barrier and start making friends with my classmates. And it was mostly all due to the selfless and amazingly sweet character of Addy--mi angel. After bioarchaeology, I went to the my EAP Culture Class and got to sit next to the homies from the trip: Gary, Kelly, and Elena as well as sitting with Annette and Casey. I had run into Casey on the metro on our way to class and we learned that we both love big, unused words so we were throwing out some bigs ones. Like big enough to stab someone's eye out como pernicious, nefarious, laconic, cogent, vicissitude, popinjay, etc....

Friday was un poquito fome al principio porque fui a Puente Alto para hablar con la fisioterapeuta pero el tenia citas todo el dia con pacientes. Entonces, tuve que salir sin hablar mucho con el pero voy a regresar manana y espero que pueda pasar tiempo con el en su oficina explicando mi situacion y que quiero observar su tiempo con los ninos discapacitados. When I got home, I sat in bed and watched movies all day and then went to Cine Hoytz with some friends to see La Nana. It was amazing...and I especially liked that fact that the girlies decided to unite at a place that was a hop, skip, and a jump away from my Chilean casita. Saturday Megan came over for lunch and then we did errands until it was time to meet Casey and Annette at Meg's house for some vinito antes que que salieramos para carretear. It ended up being a suuuuper fun yet suuuuper interesting night. There was a few casualties including maybe my favorite expensive jacket but I am going back tomorrow to see if maybe it was left behind. But I basically spoke a lot of Spanish and met a ton of cool people. And now Megan and I have some fuuuuunny memories that only we shall remembered but that will one day be fun to explain to people at inappropriate times like in front of strangers or at her wedding party. hehe For my own recollection, I am going to choose to write: Vodka con naranja con glow sticks, cool Czech dude, not being a mama, el jote, crazy expensive cab ride home, "the cab driver", and Cheerios at 5 am with Meggie.

I woke up today and went to church despite my tardiness. I got to see Pablo and Timo again who I missed like crazy. I also got to see Stephanie and Carissa too, and after church, we all went back to a friend's apartment in Las Condes which was the most beautiful place I have been in in a long time! It reminded me of a Southern home and they ended up serving lunch for all the guests and then we had tea afterwards and all talked...granted it was in Spanish so I didn't get it all...but it was such a warm atmosphere with friendly, kind people that I found myself thanking my lucky stars that I had found such amazing people during my time in Chile. I told Pablo I was getting sick and this guy named Sebastian asked what I was sick with. Pablo interjected by saying that my sickness was being a woman...and that there was no cure. I later retaliated this attack by point out the ice chest that he was carrying and asking if there was a heart inside. He said maybe and asked why. And I said because I thought we might need to perform an emergency transplant to replace his heart that had gone missing. He said it had been broken when I told him that his jacket was the color of caca. Gosh my life is funny :)

Welp, now that we are all caught up with Rose's exciting hustle-bustle life, I will leave you all saying GOOD NIGHT. Tomorrow is another big day and I just hope that I can make a stab at my research essay because I would really love to start that tomorrow! Always so much to do but it is a delicate balance between valuing the social time and thus making the best of my time in Chile but while also balancing the academics because I am STUDYING abroad and this means I have to apply myself to all the work I have at school too. Goosssssh I can't wait to be graduated sometimes!! OK buenas noches...PS: It's so cold in the D.