pensamientos

cada vez que veo un bebe chileno o niños chilenos, estoy celosa. yo sé que sus mentes han absortos o absorberán castellano más completamente y rapidamente que podré en mi vida.

It trips me out when I think about the fact that there are things that I will never be able to fully comprehend.

awkwaaaard

I am very sad to report that I had a bunch of photos and then i let constanza play with my camera and she took a million videos of her and her friend fernanda jesus and of me, her gringa, and then she somehow erased a bunch of pictures i had.

so i have no new photos.

but here is something interesting. no existe una palabra en español para "awkward." there is no word. i guess that would make sense because i don't think chileans have much awkwardness. you kiss everyone you come into contact with practically. that would probably de-awkward any situation. although i mean there has to be a way to describe someone who is somewhat socially awkward... not just situations. anyways, i taught everyone the awkward turtle. it was interesting explaining why the tortuga is nadando in una forma muy incomoda.... but we had an awkward situation and one of our chileans friends did it. it was great.

the weather is cold today. we have had random hot days and a few cold ones. it's making me sad. ¡Necesito el sol!

And last night i got sort of ripped off by the colectivo driver. (colectivos are sort of like taxis that have specific routes) some gringos have said yeah man the colectivo prices go way up after 11. and i had said, well i´ve never had that problem it´s still like 500 pesos mas o menos. which is about a dollar. some people have said they paid 700 pesos. So last night I just had to go like for a three minute ride up a hill, so i said in my lovely gringo accent... Avenida Alemania y Cerro San Juan de Dios. And of course since I am thinkign it's always a flat rate, I just say ok and get in instead of asking how much. I said se paga, handed him 1 mil, and i get back 300 pesos. I didn't say anything because one... my spanish just sucks. and two... i thought maybe it's true, maybe the prices do go up at night. when i got to marlayna and jennifers their host brother told me i was for sure ripped off. oh well. the end.

echo de menos a mi familia.

i climbed this

ok so yes now i can say i've climbed a volcano. so maaaybe i was one of the people at the end but still people, i climbed it. this is volcan villarrica en pucón, chile -- a 12-hour bus ride from viña/valpo. pucón was lovely... i went to the beach, went rafting on a river, saw birds and trees and so many other things i had never seen before. i went canopying over el campo de pucón. oh and also! las ternas! hot springs. that was fun. i ate several moras (blackberries) and this wonderful apricot like fruit that i don't know the name of. but it was fabulous. alsooo in pucón, i went to a fruit juice shop. very lovely. we ordered jugo de frambuesa (raspberries), which i think i´ll make all the time from now on. i also ordered chocolates right before i left for home. they´re gone now.

(¡lo hicimos!)

so the only thing i didn´t like was that i spoke english like the whole weekend. definitely need to improve on that one. i feel like i´m getting better at understanding what people say. i still hear conversations with my host family that don´t even let one word register in my head, and then there others where, although there is a light fog over the conversation, i still get it. some days you eat the bear; some days the bear eats you. don't think that would make much sense en español. oh and i might cook for marlayna and jennifer´s host family this fin de semana. if i don´t disappear for semana santa like everyone else is. que bueno!

sweet. tomorrow is my traditional dances of chile class. what should i take? spanish lit 3 or history of chilean theatre?? i need to decide by miercoles.

also i miss people a lot. couldn't help listening to "my father's gun" and thinking of two very lovely people. i wish everybody could be here.