Lists

Things I Like About Chile:
*"mi amor" - a term of endearment used by anyone and everyone, but especially my lovely host mom
*"ciao!" - a friendly goodbye, used for bus drivers, good friends, someone you said more than three words to. sometimes doubled for the ever entertaining "ciao ciao!" i would also like to add that i never like ciao before because it seemed like something stuck up european women say. but here, it's just lovely and friendly.
*besitos - little kisses on the cheek exchanged between men and women, strangers and best friends alike, whether coming or going. its actually weird or even rude if you don't greet everyone in the room with besitos upon entering and do the same when you leave. you just gotta go down the line showering everyone with besitos and ciao's! its greatness!
* the bus system - from the micros here in town to the charter buses that criscross the ridiculous length of the country like enormous caterpillars, the bus network is aweosme and pretty afordable. see, look at that big green bus! caterpillar!
* hospedajes y hostales - the best thing ever to happen to aimless travelers. hospedajes tend to be more like a house with spare rooms and a sweet old lady who will cook for you and hostales are more like a place with a lot of rooms and a kitchen where you can cook and hang out. they are super cheap and an excellent way to experience a culture. and the best ones are the ones with no name or sign...like this one we stayed in in Quemchi! ok well it does have that little hospedaje sign in the window. this was the one with the Psalms with beautiful pictures of nature upstairs, but it turned out they we Jehovah's Witnesses...there are a lot of those spreading their tracks around.
* Chilean Families - specifically mine! Mom is adorable, constantly tossing around pet names like "reina de mi crazon"(queen of my heart, for her youngest daughter), "mamita"(little mommy for her oldest daugher) and "pollito" (little chicken for her husband). she is so sweet and helpful and even though I can't always understand her, she is always explaining stuff to me. Dad, Miguel, is tall and silly, always joking and smiling and poking fun. he is so sweet and loving with his wife, including tapping her on the rear and leaving his hand there ofr a bit when he comes home for lunch and such...haha! and tonight he was teaching Anita, the 10 year old daughter, how to do that cat's cradle string game thing. it was awesome. Anita is lovely and sweet and she makes me laugh a little when she talks to me super slow to make sure i understand. and Sandra, my 20 year ols host sister is really cool. she is super helpful and kind and even speaks a little english which is helpful if i really get stuck. i've also noticed that Chilean families are really caring and lovey in general - kids always riding on dad's shoulders, mom kissing kids all over the face, children cuddling like crazy. quite lovely.
* everyone is always eating ice cream. from little kids with chocolate smeared all over their little faces to grown men in business suits. we're hoping they do the same thing in the winter but with hot chocolate
* they celebrate International Women's Day! it was today actually. its like mother's day(which they also celebrate) but to honor all women, including me!


Things I don't like about Chile
* the system they use for saying what time a class is. rather than just say the class is from 8:15-9:45 they say it is in hora 1-2. 10:05-11:35 is hora 3-4. i guess its the same as periods in high school but it seems much more confusing and annoying, especially when trying to figure out which bus to take and decipher the code of abbreviations for the various buildings of the universtiy which are scattered accross both Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.
* afore mentioned awkwardly placed bathroom windows
* when you are hanging out with people who speak ridiculously rapid chilean Spanish to where the only thing you can understand is when they point at you and laugh saying "no entienden" (they don't understand) and then act really condescending as they explain whatever dirty joke was being made. this happened with some of Sandra's(my host sister) friends last night. Sandra is really nice and not condescending and I really like her a lot and most of her friends, for that matter. but there were definitely a couple that i would be ok with not hanging out with, at least not until my Spanish improves greatly. anyway, here's me and catie zoning because we couldnt engage in conversation...
* having to pay for public bathrooms. i know this is a common practice in pretty much everywhere outside of the US and i have encountered it before, but never when I actually had to live somewhere. although i will say, i think it probably bothers Catie more than me because she apparently has a significantly smaller bladder.
* still don't know how to order coffee, and while my love for Nescafe grows with every cup, nothing will ever replace the goodness of freshly brewed real coffee with vanilla chai spice creamer.
*summer is a lie. yesterday was the first time it was legitimately hot and it felt beautiful. but today i don't think it got above 70.
* I can't listen to my pandora stations nor watch the office online, although I'm working on the latter.
* this is more a complaint against the Spanish language, but there is no word for akward. it's such a useful word with so may connotations and there have been so many times that it perfectly describes our lives here, but it just doesnt exist. this has not stopped us from teaching it to our chilean friends, along with the word "sketchy."

Things I've learned
*Gollum is very hard to understand when dubbed in Spanish
*church in Spanish is awesome. We went to mass once when we were in Puerto Varas and even though I couldn't understand very much, it was really nice. But today I went to church with Catie and her host mom to a little church called Family with Purpose. It was truly lovely. its a vrey new church, they dont have their own building and there were only about 20 people there. but they prayed and sang and worshipped with such beautiful fervor. and i actually understood most of what was going on which i acredit more to God answering my prayer that he open my ears than to my Spanish skills. anyway, it was aweome. plus my host mom was saying that they have mass(my host family is catholic) on the beach sometimes this time of year because the weather is still nice but all the tourists are gone. maybe next week, i'll go with them.
* hanging out with other Americans while in Chile is not usually ideal
* clubbing is not usually ideal
* clubbing with other Americans in Chile is definitely not ideal
* Psalm 19 is awesome
* it's quite confusing for my brain to watch a movie that is in Hindi and Englsih with English and Spanish subtitles and then have a son gin Spanish play during the credits. this was the case when we finally saw Slumdog Millionaire the other night, which i highly reccommend! an excellent movie!

well, that's all I've got for now. I start classes tomorrow. I have Modern India(yeah, i'm taking a history class about India in Spanish while in Chile...sweet!), then Advanced Spanish composition, then Advanced Spanish grammar, both of which are with other exchange students. I'm also taking Contemporary Spanish Literature and History and Film: War and Peace which are both regular university classes with regular Chilean students and will probably be pretty hard. so as you all gear up for spring break, remember me as I start a difficult semester of crazy.
ciao ciao!!!