HOMEWORK & SPANISH
I must admit, there is a lot more work than I was anticipating! I’m writing essays every week, as well as quite a bit of reading (which is all in Spanish of course!). Last Thursday, I had an 1.5 hour presentation for my Spanish class, definitely something I wouldn’t have been able to do before coming here, and it went pretty well! On that subject, I still feel like my Spanish is improving slowly but surely. My friends and I are making an effort to speak more Spanish when we’re together, and I’ve been able to comprehend more and more.
MI FAMILIA
Things with my wonderful Chilean family continue to get better and better! I’m feeling more comfortable talking with them and just being a real member of the family. My mama is incredibly sweet and spoils me by tidying up my room, doing my laundry, preparing amazing meals every single day and helping me with anything I need. My papa is very caring and intelligent and makes a point to teach me about Chile through stimulating dinner conversations. My brothers are hilarious and extremely nice, we have a good time practicing their English skills and joking around. I feel so lucky to be a part of such an amazing, tight-knit, loving family!
BEST STUDY BREAK EVER
Speaking of homework and my family…one night I asked if my friends Chaz and Jacob could come over to study. My mama readily agreed and offered to make a ‘little’ snack. This snack consisted of delicious fruit skewers, grilled cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs with cheese and ham, salami and cheese appetizers, pound cake, juice, coffee & tea…and then the best part, beer! We had a very tasty and productive night.
LA FERIA
Every Wednesday and Saturday there is a huge fresh fruit, vegetable and produce market in Viña and we decided to go. It is a colorful, bustling scene with some of the most succulent fruits and veggies I’ve ever seen! The celery is huge, the tomatoes are gorgeous, the pears are fresh and everything is so cheap! For example, a kilo of kiwis (about 8-10) costs the equivalent of $0.60 and a kilo of avocados costs about $1. I didn’t really need to buy fruit as my family always has an abundant supply, but I decided to buy a mango. The nice vendor helped me choose a ripe one, and then threw in an extra for free! I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how kind and patient Chileans are when helping ‘gringos’ like me buy things or navigate the city.
REÑACA
About 15 minutes up the coast from Viña is a smaller town called Reñaca. We took the bus over and climbed up some awesome sand dunes that look over the coast and the beautiful beach. We watched the sunset and had a lovely time!
RUNNING
My friend Jacob is a serious runner and has inspired me to take up running for my exercise here. Although I’ve been a casual runner for awhile, this has been my first experience as a more regular runner, and it’s great! I’ve been going almost every other day, usually to my favorite path beside the beach. My favorite time to go is after classes, around 4 or 5pm when the sun is setting and the beach is absolutely breathtaking. Every run is eventful here, for instance I've had a group of little girls run with me, a vendor follow me for about 1/2 hour on his bike, lots of 'piropos' (whistles, cat calls) and random people shouting things like 'faster!' or 'one, two, three!' or just clapping and cheering. Anyways, I already feel like I’m improving and hope to keep this up for the next few months to return home a runner!
Also, Jacob competed in two races, one this weekend and one the last weekend. Chaz, Annie and I are part of ‘team gringo’ and are his loyal supporters who come to the races decked out in tie-dye. It’s fun to see new parts of the city and be part of a community event. I especially liked the warm-up which was led by a small dance group to great music! A huge crowd of runners followed along to the dance moves to stretch and get excited for the race.
TAC & GATITOS
My internship at TAC has been going very well! Each week I’m dreading the hassle of getting to the TAC center, but once I’m there I couldn’t be happier to spend time working with such lively students. We play games, teach about the value of plants, work in the garden, perform plays and other enjoyable activities. Also, two tiny little kittens wandered into the TAC center and are currently living there!!! They are the cutest things imaginable and pretty much make my life complete.
These girls are looking at the TAC symbol, which appears on lots of murals in the area
Thanks for following and I’ll do my very best to keep updating :)
Gatitos!!
ReplyDeleteLove, Ilona