18 March 2010, Thursday
Only one class today, and it wasn't terribly eventful. We were going to watch a video, but the professor had trouble getting the sound to work so we just talked about some other basic facts about Chile (apparently they have the same technology issues here as in the U.S.). Other than that, class was pretty ho-hum. We mostly learned in detail about things that I've already gone over in the past in more general classes, such as the history of independence in Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins, etc. The French girl still isn't back, I think she'll be in class on Monday though. We chatted briefly after class again, parting ways at the bus stop as usual. I broke down and bought a bottle of juice on the way home, it cost 500 pesos, and pretty much tasted like drinking a delicious peach. I think they have better juice flavors in general here, like melon, peach, papaya, instead of fruity tutti, strawberry explosion, etc. It tastes more like juice and less like flavored sugar, although I'm sure it's probably the same thing. Today was pretty similar to Tuesday, in that I didn't really do anything. I strongly considered going to the gym again today, but a soft bed and fully charged game boy said otherwise. I had planned to go to a pretty cool sounding club with Chris tonight, but apparently there's some kind of promotion going on tomorrow, so he's waiting until then to go. I'm not sure if I'll go yet or not, I may not go if something different comes up, but it looks like the best way to get out of the house most of the time is going to be going to bars.
Other than eat lunch today, I really didn't do much. I didn't even open up my laptop after school to talk to people on Skype or anything, I was really just in a mood to sit around. I did watch TV for a while in English, reading the subtitles as they went by, noticing how the show I was watching (which was a relatively ok sitcom) would be significantly less interesting if you didn't speak English, because the subtitles lacked the feeling of the writing. Other than that, I didn't do anything of note today except for eating, which I don't think actually counts as something of note. It was really warm out today though, in retrospect, I should have gotten some friends together to go to the beach, oh well.
I got into a really productive mood tonight (as I am occasionally apt to do) and slammed out the whole week's journal entries, so I'm hoping that I didn't leave anything out due to putting it off. I've also been semi-working out in my room, but it's pretty fruitless because I probably won't keep it up, defeating the purpose in general. Oh well, at least I can say I tried a little bit now, yes, off the hook!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Two Classes in ONE Day, Cafe Journal, ID Fail, ID Win
17 March 2010, Wednesday
Today I actually had two classes, basically the two I had the past two days, but on the same day. I left, as usual, a little bit early to account for the 15-20 minute walk to school. Now all of our classes are in the same room, so we've been continuing the seating configuration that I set out on Tuesday. The French girl wasn't here today, and won't be here tomorrow because she's going on a trip, I guess now is the time to go. Class was relatively uneventful, except for one, err, misspeak by me. For some reason, when I was trying to explain how weird it is for me that my mom here cooks dinner, we eat while she's still in the kitchen, and then she sits down and starts eating right before we finish, etc. I said, in place of “ella cocina la cena” (she cooks dinner) I said “ella cocina el dinero” (she cooks money). This obviously resulted in a few confused looks, especially because I didn't understand what I had said wrong. Other than that, today wasn't terribly eventful. We all talked after class about going to Cafe Journal tonight. Most everyone there expressed some form of interest in going. Julianne, Lindsey, Trenton, etc. all said they would probably go. Since Julianne and I both got out of class at the same time today, I didn't have to walk alone up the hill, which made the walk far less difficult on my poor aching calves.
We had lunch right around when I got home, and I had planned to go after lunch to the gym to work out. This plan was derailed by a greater desire to play game boy instead. After playing for a little while, I ended up taking a nap until dinner time (like a pro). I then pretty much just sat around until around 10:30, since we were planning to leave for Cafe Journal at around 11:00. Chris wanted to leave a little bit earlier, so I got on Skype and rushed Julianne out the door. We ended up leaving from the bus stop at around 11:00 anyways, but I guess that beats the 11:15 that we probably would have ended up leaving at otherwise.
----- Random Side Note: While talking to Julianne on Skype, I had thought to remind her to bring her ID, then decided that she's an adult, and obviously she would bring her ID to a BAR. -----
We made it down to Cafe Journal relatively quickly, and on the way I got to give directions to a Chilean, YES! I felt like a badass, because I've only been here for a little over a week and I already was able to give someone directions, win! Anyways, we got to the bar and there actually were a few people already lined up outside to go in. Not that there was a wait, just that there were that many people trying to get in. At this point is when Chris and I start pulling out our ID and I tell Julianne to, to which she responds that she didn't bring it.
----- Side Side Note: I have done this. -----
So now we're standing outside of a crowded bar, looking at two large bouncers holding a thin chain across the doorway, wondering what to do. My first thought is that we're going to have to all walk back up the hill, while Chris starts saying we can just take a collectivo up there and then take another one back down. I'm obviously against this idea because this involves spending money, something I'm not apt to do. After a little bit of rapid talk back and forth, I told Julianne to just go up to the bouncer, and explain, in her best, stilted Spanish/English combo that she forgot her ID and can she please go in anyways, hoping that being a cute girl will excuse the fact that she's very short, thus doesn't look of age (sorry). Chris and I stood back while she started walking up to the door, and simultaneously as she started getting close to the bouncer, he turned around and started arguing with someone behind him. All attention was focused inward, away from where Julianne needed to be going, and the bouncer was holding the chain out from the door, Julianne glanced back at me and I immediately gestured for her to just go in. In retrospect, we're badasses, because she totally pulled this off, turning and walking into the bar without a complaint (good job Julianne). Like a fucking movie, as she walked in the doorway, the bouncer turned around in such a way that he always had his back to her and replaced the chain blocking the doorway. Chris and I (along with a random stranger standing behind us) all started laughing, and we made our way into the bar.
Julianne's pro sneaking into the bar was pretty much the highlight of the night for us though, since no one else we knew showed up. Instead, it was me, Julianne, Chris, and at one point a random friend of Chris', Matt. We talked and drank (although Julianne decided to waste a perfectly good Pisco Sour). It was pretty fun, but since no one else we knew came, I could tell that things would be getting relatively boring pretty fast. Chris got up to go attempt to talk to Chileans, and I almost joined him, but I decided that leaving Julianne alone with some guy we don't know when she doesn't speak Spanish would kind of suck, since he might end up to bore the hell out of her or something. After a little while, Julianne wanted to leave, which I was pretty okay with, since no one else was there and Chris was off mingling. At first one of her host brothers who was there offered to walk her home, but I said I could do it, since once she left I wouldn't have anyone to talk to anyways. First we went to find Eric to tell him that he wouldn't have to bring her home, but Julianne and I got separated (it was ridiculously packed by now) as I went to look at the bar and she went into a back room. Eventually we found each other in the crowd and managed to get out (it literally took like, 4 minutes to travel 5 yards, with me pushing through the crowd aggressively). The walk back wasn't terrible, although a 15 minute long uphill walk after a liter of beer is a little bit difficult. Once I got home, I think I went straight to bed, although I might not have, once again, I'm a few days late on writing this, so the details are a little bit hazy. It was actually pretty cloudy for most of the day today, but the sun did eventually come out.
Today I actually had two classes, basically the two I had the past two days, but on the same day. I left, as usual, a little bit early to account for the 15-20 minute walk to school. Now all of our classes are in the same room, so we've been continuing the seating configuration that I set out on Tuesday. The French girl wasn't here today, and won't be here tomorrow because she's going on a trip, I guess now is the time to go. Class was relatively uneventful, except for one, err, misspeak by me. For some reason, when I was trying to explain how weird it is for me that my mom here cooks dinner, we eat while she's still in the kitchen, and then she sits down and starts eating right before we finish, etc. I said, in place of “ella cocina la cena” (she cooks dinner) I said “ella cocina el dinero” (she cooks money). This obviously resulted in a few confused looks, especially because I didn't understand what I had said wrong. Other than that, today wasn't terribly eventful. We all talked after class about going to Cafe Journal tonight. Most everyone there expressed some form of interest in going. Julianne, Lindsey, Trenton, etc. all said they would probably go. Since Julianne and I both got out of class at the same time today, I didn't have to walk alone up the hill, which made the walk far less difficult on my poor aching calves.
We had lunch right around when I got home, and I had planned to go after lunch to the gym to work out. This plan was derailed by a greater desire to play game boy instead. After playing for a little while, I ended up taking a nap until dinner time (like a pro). I then pretty much just sat around until around 10:30, since we were planning to leave for Cafe Journal at around 11:00. Chris wanted to leave a little bit earlier, so I got on Skype and rushed Julianne out the door. We ended up leaving from the bus stop at around 11:00 anyways, but I guess that beats the 11:15 that we probably would have ended up leaving at otherwise.
----- Random Side Note: While talking to Julianne on Skype, I had thought to remind her to bring her ID, then decided that she's an adult, and obviously she would bring her ID to a BAR. -----
We made it down to Cafe Journal relatively quickly, and on the way I got to give directions to a Chilean, YES! I felt like a badass, because I've only been here for a little over a week and I already was able to give someone directions, win! Anyways, we got to the bar and there actually were a few people already lined up outside to go in. Not that there was a wait, just that there were that many people trying to get in. At this point is when Chris and I start pulling out our ID and I tell Julianne to, to which she responds that she didn't bring it.
----- Side Side Note: I have done this. -----
So now we're standing outside of a crowded bar, looking at two large bouncers holding a thin chain across the doorway, wondering what to do. My first thought is that we're going to have to all walk back up the hill, while Chris starts saying we can just take a collectivo up there and then take another one back down. I'm obviously against this idea because this involves spending money, something I'm not apt to do. After a little bit of rapid talk back and forth, I told Julianne to just go up to the bouncer, and explain, in her best, stilted Spanish/English combo that she forgot her ID and can she please go in anyways, hoping that being a cute girl will excuse the fact that she's very short, thus doesn't look of age (sorry). Chris and I stood back while she started walking up to the door, and simultaneously as she started getting close to the bouncer, he turned around and started arguing with someone behind him. All attention was focused inward, away from where Julianne needed to be going, and the bouncer was holding the chain out from the door, Julianne glanced back at me and I immediately gestured for her to just go in. In retrospect, we're badasses, because she totally pulled this off, turning and walking into the bar without a complaint (good job Julianne). Like a fucking movie, as she walked in the doorway, the bouncer turned around in such a way that he always had his back to her and replaced the chain blocking the doorway. Chris and I (along with a random stranger standing behind us) all started laughing, and we made our way into the bar.
Julianne's pro sneaking into the bar was pretty much the highlight of the night for us though, since no one else we knew showed up. Instead, it was me, Julianne, Chris, and at one point a random friend of Chris', Matt. We talked and drank (although Julianne decided to waste a perfectly good Pisco Sour). It was pretty fun, but since no one else we knew came, I could tell that things would be getting relatively boring pretty fast. Chris got up to go attempt to talk to Chileans, and I almost joined him, but I decided that leaving Julianne alone with some guy we don't know when she doesn't speak Spanish would kind of suck, since he might end up to bore the hell out of her or something. After a little while, Julianne wanted to leave, which I was pretty okay with, since no one else was there and Chris was off mingling. At first one of her host brothers who was there offered to walk her home, but I said I could do it, since once she left I wouldn't have anyone to talk to anyways. First we went to find Eric to tell him that he wouldn't have to bring her home, but Julianne and I got separated (it was ridiculously packed by now) as I went to look at the bar and she went into a back room. Eventually we found each other in the crowd and managed to get out (it literally took like, 4 minutes to travel 5 yards, with me pushing through the crowd aggressively). The walk back wasn't terrible, although a 15 minute long uphill walk after a liter of beer is a little bit difficult. Once I got home, I think I went straight to bed, although I might not have, once again, I'm a few days late on writing this, so the details are a little bit hazy. It was actually pretty cloudy for most of the day today, but the sun did eventually come out.
Second Day of Class, Not much Going on
16 March 2010, Tuesday
Today was my second day of class, which started a little bit later than the other one, which is at 9:45. This class didn't start until 11:15, so I got to sleep in. Cecilia made me a little sandwich and gave me a juice box (as she did yesterday, and I think will be doing every day) before I left. I made it to class with little event, although our classroom did change. As a result, group 2 got to chat with group 1 a little bit, as they had just finished class before we were entering. We had a new girl in class today, I don't remember her name, but she came down a level from the French group (I think). I may or may not have accidentally set the seating configuration for the semester, because I walked into class first and chose a desk in the second row, right in the middle of the row. As a result, Anna and Trenton sat in the two desks to my right, and Sarina and the French girl sat in the two across the aisle in the same row. We basically did a little bit of a summary of what the course would be, introductions, etc. Not much to mention at the moment.
After class, again, we walked down to the bus stop then separated out from there. Sometimes the conversation is in all German, because Anna, Sarina, and Trenton all speak German (Trenton isn't from Germany, but he studied abroad there and speaks pretty fluently from what I can tell). I try to go unnoticed during these times, because I actually do enjoy listening to the conversation, even if I am not comprehending anything; at the same time, I know that they're going to end up switching to English or Spanish on my account. I could take the bus home, but it costs 200 pesos, and it's not like I'm trying to get home to get anything done, I may as well enjoy the weather and the exercise while it's still comfortable. Once I got home I think I pretty much just sat around all day. Not much is going on right now, since people are getting used to classes, etc. I keep strongly contemplating going to the gym, but thus far I haven't built up the effort. Oh, and the weather was awesome again today.
Today was my second day of class, which started a little bit later than the other one, which is at 9:45. This class didn't start until 11:15, so I got to sleep in. Cecilia made me a little sandwich and gave me a juice box (as she did yesterday, and I think will be doing every day) before I left. I made it to class with little event, although our classroom did change. As a result, group 2 got to chat with group 1 a little bit, as they had just finished class before we were entering. We had a new girl in class today, I don't remember her name, but she came down a level from the French group (I think). I may or may not have accidentally set the seating configuration for the semester, because I walked into class first and chose a desk in the second row, right in the middle of the row. As a result, Anna and Trenton sat in the two desks to my right, and Sarina and the French girl sat in the two across the aisle in the same row. We basically did a little bit of a summary of what the course would be, introductions, etc. Not much to mention at the moment.
After class, again, we walked down to the bus stop then separated out from there. Sometimes the conversation is in all German, because Anna, Sarina, and Trenton all speak German (Trenton isn't from Germany, but he studied abroad there and speaks pretty fluently from what I can tell). I try to go unnoticed during these times, because I actually do enjoy listening to the conversation, even if I am not comprehending anything; at the same time, I know that they're going to end up switching to English or Spanish on my account. I could take the bus home, but it costs 200 pesos, and it's not like I'm trying to get home to get anything done, I may as well enjoy the weather and the exercise while it's still comfortable. Once I got home I think I pretty much just sat around all day. Not much is going on right now, since people are getting used to classes, etc. I keep strongly contemplating going to the gym, but thus far I haven't built up the effort. Oh, and the weather was awesome again today.
First Day of Class, Av. Valparaiso, Secret Agent Alberto, Exploring with Mai+Julianne
15 March 2010, Monday
Today was my first day of classes, or I guess I should say class. After about a 15 minute walk, I arrived at the UVM campus on Diego Portales. I had to ask around to find out where my classroom was, since it was wedged into a small room in the corner, and didn't really have any number so to speak of. Trenton and Anna were already there, but Sarina hadn't shown up yet. We talked a little bit about how everything was going, how the power outage last night was, etc. Pretty soon, our teacher showed up and we started class. It seems like we're mostly going to be going over grammar, writing skills, etc. Not much to say about class so far, erm, oh yeah, Sarina did show up, just a little bit late is all.
After class, the other students and I walked together towards the bus stop, I parted ways with them there and started walking towards Av. Valparaiso. I had brought the non-functioning game boy adapter with me and was planning to go find the store and return it. Finding the store could have been a problem, since Chris was pretty much leading the way whenever we went the first time, so I wasn't sure I would find it again. Turns out subconscious memory is pretty good, because I found the store with no problems at all. I couldn't return the adapter for cash, as I had hoped, so I ended up trading it for a camera case that I don't need and some more batteries. I then went in search of the area where I was told I should look to find such an adapter. I called my host mom and asked her to look for the address, which I had left at home, and she found it and told it to me. As I was writing it down, I looked up and saw that I was already standing there. I went into what was kind of like an indoor strip mall, and the first four stores were all gaming stores. It only took two tries to find the adapter, success! Now I was broke, so I went towards a bank that I had seen earlier to get some money out of the ATM. While I was standing there waiting in line behind someone, I looked out the glass doors of the bank to see, to my surprise, Alberto standing outside of the story waiting to see if I would notice him (I presume). At this point I started to wonder if he was in more than just the investigations department of the police, maybe he's a retired spy just waiting to be reactivated?
At any rate, I went out and said hi and joined him for whatever he was doing, which was getting a few groceries, bread, etc. We chatted as we walked around the street, him explaining how the Av. Valparaiso is where everything is in Vina, except for the mall. As we walked, we ran into 3 friends of his, all ex-police as well. One of them was 88 years old, but he seemed as spry and lucid as a 60 year old. I can only hope that I'll hold up so well as I age. We took the bus home, and soon after arriving Cecilia made us lunch. I didn't have any other class for the rest of the day, so I went upstairs and plugged in my DS charger, then finished reading a book I had started on the plane and have been working through since then. Julianne instant messaged me on Skype and asked if I wanted to go with her and Mai (another girl who's going to UVM, she's in the same group as Julianne) to “explore.” I said sure, and met them at around 4 or so, I don't really remember what time. Julianne walked down the hill and met Mai at the school bus stop, which is right next to the popular bar here, Cafe Journal. We walked to Av. Valparaiso and pretty much started taking the exact same walk as I had done this morning, but with stopping to take pictures outside of bakeries and such. The longest stop of the trip was in a Chilean clothing store (actually Chilean clothing, not U.S. made). The prices were ridiculously cheap for girl's blouses, so Mai and Julianne sifted through them while I offered helpful(?) advice. Julianne ended up buying one blouse, in the midst of flirting with yet another sexy Chilean man. I feel bad for guys here who are trying to pick up women, because the competition is fierce. We walked home, Mai separating from Julianne and I a little bit before Cafe Journal because she lives in the other direction. Once I got home, there were only a couple hours until dinner, so I took this precious time to start feverishly playing game boy. Not much else happened today, that I can remember... I'm typing this entry on Thursday, so hopefully my memory isn't inaccurate. Oh, and the weather was fantastic again today.
Today was my first day of classes, or I guess I should say class. After about a 15 minute walk, I arrived at the UVM campus on Diego Portales. I had to ask around to find out where my classroom was, since it was wedged into a small room in the corner, and didn't really have any number so to speak of. Trenton and Anna were already there, but Sarina hadn't shown up yet. We talked a little bit about how everything was going, how the power outage last night was, etc. Pretty soon, our teacher showed up and we started class. It seems like we're mostly going to be going over grammar, writing skills, etc. Not much to say about class so far, erm, oh yeah, Sarina did show up, just a little bit late is all.
After class, the other students and I walked together towards the bus stop, I parted ways with them there and started walking towards Av. Valparaiso. I had brought the non-functioning game boy adapter with me and was planning to go find the store and return it. Finding the store could have been a problem, since Chris was pretty much leading the way whenever we went the first time, so I wasn't sure I would find it again. Turns out subconscious memory is pretty good, because I found the store with no problems at all. I couldn't return the adapter for cash, as I had hoped, so I ended up trading it for a camera case that I don't need and some more batteries. I then went in search of the area where I was told I should look to find such an adapter. I called my host mom and asked her to look for the address, which I had left at home, and she found it and told it to me. As I was writing it down, I looked up and saw that I was already standing there. I went into what was kind of like an indoor strip mall, and the first four stores were all gaming stores. It only took two tries to find the adapter, success! Now I was broke, so I went towards a bank that I had seen earlier to get some money out of the ATM. While I was standing there waiting in line behind someone, I looked out the glass doors of the bank to see, to my surprise, Alberto standing outside of the story waiting to see if I would notice him (I presume). At this point I started to wonder if he was in more than just the investigations department of the police, maybe he's a retired spy just waiting to be reactivated?
At any rate, I went out and said hi and joined him for whatever he was doing, which was getting a few groceries, bread, etc. We chatted as we walked around the street, him explaining how the Av. Valparaiso is where everything is in Vina, except for the mall. As we walked, we ran into 3 friends of his, all ex-police as well. One of them was 88 years old, but he seemed as spry and lucid as a 60 year old. I can only hope that I'll hold up so well as I age. We took the bus home, and soon after arriving Cecilia made us lunch. I didn't have any other class for the rest of the day, so I went upstairs and plugged in my DS charger, then finished reading a book I had started on the plane and have been working through since then. Julianne instant messaged me on Skype and asked if I wanted to go with her and Mai (another girl who's going to UVM, she's in the same group as Julianne) to “explore.” I said sure, and met them at around 4 or so, I don't really remember what time. Julianne walked down the hill and met Mai at the school bus stop, which is right next to the popular bar here, Cafe Journal. We walked to Av. Valparaiso and pretty much started taking the exact same walk as I had done this morning, but with stopping to take pictures outside of bakeries and such. The longest stop of the trip was in a Chilean clothing store (actually Chilean clothing, not U.S. made). The prices were ridiculously cheap for girl's blouses, so Mai and Julianne sifted through them while I offered helpful(?) advice. Julianne ended up buying one blouse, in the midst of flirting with yet another sexy Chilean man. I feel bad for guys here who are trying to pick up women, because the competition is fierce. We walked home, Mai separating from Julianne and I a little bit before Cafe Journal because she lives in the other direction. Once I got home, there were only a couple hours until dinner, so I took this precious time to start feverishly playing game boy. Not much else happened today, that I can remember... I'm typing this entry on Thursday, so hopefully my memory isn't inaccurate. Oh, and the weather was fantastic again today.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Lunch, Jogging in Place, and Blackouts
14 March 2010, Sunday
Today it was a little bit cooler outside, but still quite comfortable. The day started out pretty slow, we didn't have lunch until 2, mostly because everyone sleeps in really late on Sundays here. We had steak with fried egg on top, with fried potatoes and onions, which makes a delicious combination, for reference. I also tried for the first time sprite, but with added lemon, and it's pretty awesome. Not much went on today, partly because there's not really anywhere to go when everything is closed on Sunday, and partly because I'm just getting ready to start school tomorrow. My first class will be tomorrow at 9:45 in the morning, and I think it's my only class for the day. I basically sat around the house all day until dinner time, but right before dinner Julianne was trying to get me to go jogging since she didn't want to go alone. I agreed, but only if we walked toward the beach, and only if I could walk while she jogged next to me. We made it not too far before I realized that the sun would be down by the time we got to the beach, and since half the point of going to the beach was to watch a Chilean sunset, I decided to turn around. Julianne was cool with this, because then she could jog uphill. I was between very and extremely confident that she was just begging for us to get mugged by jogging through somewhat sketchy neighborhoods wearing standard US jogging attire. It was cool though, because since she was jogging ahead of me, I could just run away and they wouldn't even notice me. Of course, I would never do that, I would protect her from danger like a good person... In the end, we didn't get mugged, which is good. She followed me up to my host family's house, which is up the hill from hers, as part of her plan to exercise more and to “get her heart rate going.” My host mom offered her something to drink, and she hung out for a while and made fun of my scarf (which is hanging next to my dresser). She was also kind enough to mock me for having a small laptop. When we went downstairs so she could leave, there were three people in the sitting room of my family's house, so we introduced ourselves and enjoyed an awkward moment where I had no idea who these people were. I offered to walk Julianne home, but she refused rather adamantly, so I accepted it. Well, I accepted it until she walked out of the gate and went in the complete wrong direction.
The walk didn't take long, it was the walk back that was fun. As I started walking back, probably 20 seconds after I left Julianne at her doorstep, a dog on the street (a poodle, no less) started staring at me. I didn't think anything of it, because there are stray dogs staring at you all the time here, but then all the lights on the street went out. Just like a horror film or something, the moment the lights went out, the dog started barking viciously at me. I decided to just keep walking and avoid challenging the dog in what it seemed to think was its territory. It followed me for a little over a block, barking and snarling a foot away from me, but eventually it felt less threatened and went on its merry way. Beyond that, I got home without much problem, and it was then that I discovered that the lights in the whole city had gone out. I had been a little bit confused, because it didn't really make sense to turn off the street lights at night. I sat down at the dinner table where my parents and their friends had gathered, and after listening to the conversation for a while, along with the radio, I found out that the entire country was without power. Obviously, it took me a while to understand, and eventually I just asked, “todo el pais esta sin poder?” Everyone nodded and said yes, yes, the whole country doesn't had power. I had to actually ask, because I couldn't believe that such a huge country could simultaneously lose power like that in every city. Alberto's friend (I don't remember his name) explained that the whole country was broken up into 4 power districts, and that one of them was the main district, and that if it failed the whole system would break down. I didn't really understand how this could work, so I asked if this was nationalized power, but they said no, it is in the private sector. Later I found out, or at least at the time of this writing it's what everyone is saying, that there was too much demand and drain on the system, so the whole thing just shut down. I'm actually writing this in the dark right now, although we do have power, everyone has been advised to save energy and to not turn on too many lights and so on. So thus far we've had earthquakes, tsunamis, and power outages, enough so that Cecilia, Alberto, and their friends were joking around at the dinner table about how Chris and I have experienced every disaster possible here.
Today it was a little bit cooler outside, but still quite comfortable. The day started out pretty slow, we didn't have lunch until 2, mostly because everyone sleeps in really late on Sundays here. We had steak with fried egg on top, with fried potatoes and onions, which makes a delicious combination, for reference. I also tried for the first time sprite, but with added lemon, and it's pretty awesome. Not much went on today, partly because there's not really anywhere to go when everything is closed on Sunday, and partly because I'm just getting ready to start school tomorrow. My first class will be tomorrow at 9:45 in the morning, and I think it's my only class for the day. I basically sat around the house all day until dinner time, but right before dinner Julianne was trying to get me to go jogging since she didn't want to go alone. I agreed, but only if we walked toward the beach, and only if I could walk while she jogged next to me. We made it not too far before I realized that the sun would be down by the time we got to the beach, and since half the point of going to the beach was to watch a Chilean sunset, I decided to turn around. Julianne was cool with this, because then she could jog uphill. I was between very and extremely confident that she was just begging for us to get mugged by jogging through somewhat sketchy neighborhoods wearing standard US jogging attire. It was cool though, because since she was jogging ahead of me, I could just run away and they wouldn't even notice me. Of course, I would never do that, I would protect her from danger like a good person... In the end, we didn't get mugged, which is good. She followed me up to my host family's house, which is up the hill from hers, as part of her plan to exercise more and to “get her heart rate going.” My host mom offered her something to drink, and she hung out for a while and made fun of my scarf (which is hanging next to my dresser). She was also kind enough to mock me for having a small laptop. When we went downstairs so she could leave, there were three people in the sitting room of my family's house, so we introduced ourselves and enjoyed an awkward moment where I had no idea who these people were. I offered to walk Julianne home, but she refused rather adamantly, so I accepted it. Well, I accepted it until she walked out of the gate and went in the complete wrong direction.
The walk didn't take long, it was the walk back that was fun. As I started walking back, probably 20 seconds after I left Julianne at her doorstep, a dog on the street (a poodle, no less) started staring at me. I didn't think anything of it, because there are stray dogs staring at you all the time here, but then all the lights on the street went out. Just like a horror film or something, the moment the lights went out, the dog started barking viciously at me. I decided to just keep walking and avoid challenging the dog in what it seemed to think was its territory. It followed me for a little over a block, barking and snarling a foot away from me, but eventually it felt less threatened and went on its merry way. Beyond that, I got home without much problem, and it was then that I discovered that the lights in the whole city had gone out. I had been a little bit confused, because it didn't really make sense to turn off the street lights at night. I sat down at the dinner table where my parents and their friends had gathered, and after listening to the conversation for a while, along with the radio, I found out that the entire country was without power. Obviously, it took me a while to understand, and eventually I just asked, “todo el pais esta sin poder?” Everyone nodded and said yes, yes, the whole country doesn't had power. I had to actually ask, because I couldn't believe that such a huge country could simultaneously lose power like that in every city. Alberto's friend (I don't remember his name) explained that the whole country was broken up into 4 power districts, and that one of them was the main district, and that if it failed the whole system would break down. I didn't really understand how this could work, so I asked if this was nationalized power, but they said no, it is in the private sector. Later I found out, or at least at the time of this writing it's what everyone is saying, that there was too much demand and drain on the system, so the whole thing just shut down. I'm actually writing this in the dark right now, although we do have power, everyone has been advised to save energy and to not turn on too many lights and so on. So thus far we've had earthquakes, tsunamis, and power outages, enough so that Cecilia, Alberto, and their friends were joking around at the dinner table about how Chris and I have experienced every disaster possible here.
The beach, mocking Francesca, the mall, and failing to take the bus
13 March 2010, Saturday
Today the weather was quite nice all day, around 63-67 degrees and sunny, with a nice cool breeze. I forced myself to sleep in today, although my body was trying to get me to wake up at 9:30. I managed to stay sleeping until past noon, which was actually a challenge. I think the healthy food is encouraging my body to do more things, I hope not though. I had lunch with my family and older sister Cecilia, but we call her Chi Chi. Francesca is out of town, along with Chris, so it was just the 4 of us. Once again, the food was delicious (I might need to stop writing that and just say that there was food, since by now it is assumed that the food is awesome). We talked about various things, and there was a lot of storytelling going on between Alberto, Chi Chi, and Cecilia. Alberto told a story about how he got lost in the middle of the sea/lake, but was rescued by two surfers. He said that he had been calmly floating in the water when he realized that he had gone too far out, and would be unable to swim back to shore, instead of panicking, he simply waited for rescue. I eventually realized that this story was prompted because the family was talking about how Francesca reacted to her hamster being chased by the dog, covering her eyes and ears with her hands and saying “no no no papa no no” or something along those lines. Apparently she did the same thing when her dad was floating out at sea, when a friend of hers hit a dog while driving, and so on. I'm glad to see that this family also makes fun of each other, although I'm sad that Francesca wasn't there for the mockery.
After lunch, I waited around for a while, trying to decide when I would be willing to make the effort to go to town and return my non-functioning gameboy charger. Julianne told me that she needed to get a cell phone, so I invited her to come along, since I needed to go to the mall anyways. She said sure, but she was waiting to see when her brothers were going to the beach, because she was supposed to go with them. After a few hours, we ended up rushing out to the beach around 4, meeting up with several other UVM students, all of whom were French. We mostly just laid out on the beach, because it was way to cold to swim (although I did go stand in the water, which was quite refreshing). After hanging around there for an hour or two, Julianne and I took a bus to the mall. We grabbed some freaking wonderful churros con manjar on the way (an awesome decision by Julianne). The mall was pretty crowded, I guess because it was Saturday. First, we went into a store that I thought was the same one where I got my cell phone, but apparently it wasn't. They also had cell phones, but they were more expensive than the one I got, so we decided to go to another store. I asked about getting a DSi charger, but they said I had to go to another store (lame). We searched around for a while, and ended up deciding to come back on Thursday, when one of the stores said that they would have the same model that I bought. This is where the fun began.
We left the mall around 9, so it had just gotten dark out. We went to wait where I thought the bus we needed to take would come, but it didn't seem like it was coming. After waiting for a few minutes, I asked some other people if our buses came here, and they said yes. After about, 30 minutes, I was getting impatient/nervous and starting to feel guilty, since Julianne had to rely on me to get us home. I called my host mom, and she told me that we were in the right spot, but that we could also take a colectivo home if it had the number 7 on it. Long story short, after asking many other people where to go, I decided that we should go to the mall and look for a map (I had forgotten mine). On the way to the mall, Julianne spotted a colectivo #7, but we missed it, so we just waited near were that one was. Eventually another one came by, so we took it and actually managed to get home, hooray! The best part, the colectivo literally only cost us a dollar each, transportation is crazy cheap here. Oh, and by the way, Julianne wanted to walk both to the mall and to walk home from the mall, because she's crazy. Once we got out of the colectivo, Julianne and I parted our separate ways to get home. In retrospect, I probably should have been a little more gentlemanly and walked her home, but instead (she later told me) she had to run home. Moral of the story, I made an ass of myself today, hooray, but at least we didn't get mugged or stabbed. Speaking of getting stabbed, Julianne obviously doesn't know me very well, because she said that she didn't bring her mace that she normally carries, because she was going to have me for protection. Haha, yeah, right. I told her that I would probably run away if someone attacked us, so I just earned a lot of manliness points today. When I got home my whole family was out, but dinner was waiting for me on the table (awesome). I went upstairs and wasted some time on the internet for a while before going to sleep pretty late, so all in all I guess the day was a success?
Today the weather was quite nice all day, around 63-67 degrees and sunny, with a nice cool breeze. I forced myself to sleep in today, although my body was trying to get me to wake up at 9:30. I managed to stay sleeping until past noon, which was actually a challenge. I think the healthy food is encouraging my body to do more things, I hope not though. I had lunch with my family and older sister Cecilia, but we call her Chi Chi. Francesca is out of town, along with Chris, so it was just the 4 of us. Once again, the food was delicious (I might need to stop writing that and just say that there was food, since by now it is assumed that the food is awesome). We talked about various things, and there was a lot of storytelling going on between Alberto, Chi Chi, and Cecilia. Alberto told a story about how he got lost in the middle of the sea/lake, but was rescued by two surfers. He said that he had been calmly floating in the water when he realized that he had gone too far out, and would be unable to swim back to shore, instead of panicking, he simply waited for rescue. I eventually realized that this story was prompted because the family was talking about how Francesca reacted to her hamster being chased by the dog, covering her eyes and ears with her hands and saying “no no no papa no no” or something along those lines. Apparently she did the same thing when her dad was floating out at sea, when a friend of hers hit a dog while driving, and so on. I'm glad to see that this family also makes fun of each other, although I'm sad that Francesca wasn't there for the mockery.
After lunch, I waited around for a while, trying to decide when I would be willing to make the effort to go to town and return my non-functioning gameboy charger. Julianne told me that she needed to get a cell phone, so I invited her to come along, since I needed to go to the mall anyways. She said sure, but she was waiting to see when her brothers were going to the beach, because she was supposed to go with them. After a few hours, we ended up rushing out to the beach around 4, meeting up with several other UVM students, all of whom were French. We mostly just laid out on the beach, because it was way to cold to swim (although I did go stand in the water, which was quite refreshing). After hanging around there for an hour or two, Julianne and I took a bus to the mall. We grabbed some freaking wonderful churros con manjar on the way (an awesome decision by Julianne). The mall was pretty crowded, I guess because it was Saturday. First, we went into a store that I thought was the same one where I got my cell phone, but apparently it wasn't. They also had cell phones, but they were more expensive than the one I got, so we decided to go to another store. I asked about getting a DSi charger, but they said I had to go to another store (lame). We searched around for a while, and ended up deciding to come back on Thursday, when one of the stores said that they would have the same model that I bought. This is where the fun began.
We left the mall around 9, so it had just gotten dark out. We went to wait where I thought the bus we needed to take would come, but it didn't seem like it was coming. After waiting for a few minutes, I asked some other people if our buses came here, and they said yes. After about, 30 minutes, I was getting impatient/nervous and starting to feel guilty, since Julianne had to rely on me to get us home. I called my host mom, and she told me that we were in the right spot, but that we could also take a colectivo home if it had the number 7 on it. Long story short, after asking many other people where to go, I decided that we should go to the mall and look for a map (I had forgotten mine). On the way to the mall, Julianne spotted a colectivo #7, but we missed it, so we just waited near were that one was. Eventually another one came by, so we took it and actually managed to get home, hooray! The best part, the colectivo literally only cost us a dollar each, transportation is crazy cheap here. Oh, and by the way, Julianne wanted to walk both to the mall and to walk home from the mall, because she's crazy. Once we got out of the colectivo, Julianne and I parted our separate ways to get home. In retrospect, I probably should have been a little more gentlemanly and walked her home, but instead (she later told me) she had to run home. Moral of the story, I made an ass of myself today, hooray, but at least we didn't get mugged or stabbed. Speaking of getting stabbed, Julianne obviously doesn't know me very well, because she said that she didn't bring her mace that she normally carries, because she was going to have me for protection. Haha, yeah, right. I told her that I would probably run away if someone attacked us, so I just earned a lot of manliness points today. When I got home my whole family was out, but dinner was waiting for me on the table (awesome). I went upstairs and wasted some time on the internet for a while before going to sleep pretty late, so all in all I guess the day was a success?
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Bars, Orientation, Stupid Nintendo
12 March 2010
Today the international students had a meeting to discuss our class schedules and the other choices we have to decide from. The gringos all sat in one section, separate from the French and the few hispanoblantes, which I found very entertaining. It looks like I'm set up to mostly just be in a bunch of Spanish classes, they had already set up several courses for me. I'm trying to change a couple, because I don't want to take a class over pronunciation that doesn't last for very long, but instead I want to take a class called Cultures in Contact in Chile, and I'd also like to take another class called “Contemporary themes in Latin America.” It would put my hours above 12, which is against my original plan, but that's okay because the classes should be really interesting, and it doesn't seem like the language classes are going to take more effort than just going to class. After the orientation, we went to a ceremony for the new students, with speeches, music, and some poetry as well. It was pretty fun, but as with all school functions, the speeches weren't terribly interesting. Something else that seems to be the same in most cultures, I suppose. I finally met Sabdy today as well, right before the ceremony, after months of e-mails about Chile. She was super helpful and explained some of the things about Chile that I hadn't known yet, plus some slang. After the orientation, we went to try to get on a bus but missed the first few because they were full and had to wait for what felt like an hour. It was okay, because Julianne (I spelled her name wrong in the first post, I'm SORRY. I'm not really, I like Juliana better :P), Mai, Trenton, Lindsey (for a while), and I all were stuck waiting for the bus. Mai and Trenton are both from the U.S. as well, and Lindsey is the unlucky Canadian I spoke of earlier. I don't know as much about Mai yet, but I do know that Trenton speaks 3 languages (that bastard) as part of his plan to do well in the job market. Finally the buses came back, but of course the first one back just parked and mocked us from afar, then we rode the second one into town. Of course, I embarrassed myself trying to get off of the bus because I failed to open a door; all I had to do was push, but I guess I have a bigger vagina than I thought.
After getting off at my stop (along with Julianne who has the same stop) I went home and had lunch with my family. As usual, it was delicious. After sitting around for a while, Chris and I went to el centro in search of a wireless mouse for him, (which we later realized was pointless because he wanted it to avoid wasting a USB port, but it takes one anyways) and a charger for my DS, which for some reason doesn't work with a converter (too much converting maybe?) On the way, we ran into his friend Kim and her host mom who were out shopping and chatted for a while. Eventually we found a radiovision, where the guy did have a USB charger for the DS, although when I got home I discovered (to my delight) that it is a charger for the DS, not the DSi. For some RIDICULOUS reason, the DS, DS Lite, and the DSi all have different chargers. Hey, Nintendo, fuck you, that sucks. Once Chris and I got back, I pretty much just sat around trying to figure out how the hell to get to OH, a club where there is a party tonight for international students from UVM and the other university here in town. I figured out where the club was and started heading out. Originally, I thought that Mai, Julianne, maybe Anna, and I were going to go down there together, but I didn't have Anna's number, Mai decided not to go, and Julianne went somewhere else with her brother first. Anyways, I started going down there alone, and quickly decided to take a colectivo, which is like a taxi but that will stop and pick up more than 1 group of people, so its usually cheaper. I actually got the same driver as the one that Chris and I took home last night, so that was kind of cool. He and I talked the whole way down, but it ended up costing 4.000 pesos because he didn't end up picking anyone else up, so it was like a taxi price. Once we got to the bar, I went inside and didn't see anyone I recognized. I figured this would happen, since I had left kind of early planning to walk, but changed my mind once I got to the street. I thought I recognized a guy named Hector who is a friend of Chris's that I had met earlier, so I went over to say hi, but I realized that it was actually a different person entirely. We exchanged greetings anyways and I sat down with him and his other friend, both of whom were from Spain. After talking with them for a while, I ended up ordering a liter of beer (I had the thought in mind that I could share it with my friends once they showed up). At Cafe Journal, the other bar we went to, the beer came in liter bottles with a couple of glasses, but apparently at OH the beer comes in GIANT Viking god sized mugs.
After hanging out with the Spaniards for about 30 or 40 minutes, finally some people I know showed up, in fact, they all showed up at the same time. I sat down with them at a table with 4 Chileans from Vina as well. I ended up sitting at the end with all of the Chileans and had a good time talking with them. Every once in a while I would switch to the other end of the table and crouch between to people and chat, just to try to mix up the conversation. Lindsey the Canadian girl was there, and whenever we went to pay, something happened (I'm not too clear on it because I had already paid for my beer by then) where she thought she had lost 10.000 pesos. This is just further proof of her massively unlucky streak. I finished my whole liter of beer, which obviously was a little much for me, but I was still pretty functional, and obviously I remember pretty well what happened. Thankfully, Trenton and his girlfriend were there (his girlfriend is from Chile), and she has a car, so they offered me a ride home. This saved me a long and difficult walk, which I'm very thankful for. I got home and promptly went to bed. The weather was pretty awesome for most of the day, but like usual it started out kind of muggy. I'm not sure, but it felt like around 62 in the morning and 70 in the afternoon.
Today the international students had a meeting to discuss our class schedules and the other choices we have to decide from. The gringos all sat in one section, separate from the French and the few hispanoblantes, which I found very entertaining. It looks like I'm set up to mostly just be in a bunch of Spanish classes, they had already set up several courses for me. I'm trying to change a couple, because I don't want to take a class over pronunciation that doesn't last for very long, but instead I want to take a class called Cultures in Contact in Chile, and I'd also like to take another class called “Contemporary themes in Latin America.” It would put my hours above 12, which is against my original plan, but that's okay because the classes should be really interesting, and it doesn't seem like the language classes are going to take more effort than just going to class. After the orientation, we went to a ceremony for the new students, with speeches, music, and some poetry as well. It was pretty fun, but as with all school functions, the speeches weren't terribly interesting. Something else that seems to be the same in most cultures, I suppose. I finally met Sabdy today as well, right before the ceremony, after months of e-mails about Chile. She was super helpful and explained some of the things about Chile that I hadn't known yet, plus some slang. After the orientation, we went to try to get on a bus but missed the first few because they were full and had to wait for what felt like an hour. It was okay, because Julianne (I spelled her name wrong in the first post, I'm SORRY. I'm not really, I like Juliana better :P), Mai, Trenton, Lindsey (for a while), and I all were stuck waiting for the bus. Mai and Trenton are both from the U.S. as well, and Lindsey is the unlucky Canadian I spoke of earlier. I don't know as much about Mai yet, but I do know that Trenton speaks 3 languages (that bastard) as part of his plan to do well in the job market. Finally the buses came back, but of course the first one back just parked and mocked us from afar, then we rode the second one into town. Of course, I embarrassed myself trying to get off of the bus because I failed to open a door; all I had to do was push, but I guess I have a bigger vagina than I thought.
After getting off at my stop (along with Julianne who has the same stop) I went home and had lunch with my family. As usual, it was delicious. After sitting around for a while, Chris and I went to el centro in search of a wireless mouse for him, (which we later realized was pointless because he wanted it to avoid wasting a USB port, but it takes one anyways) and a charger for my DS, which for some reason doesn't work with a converter (too much converting maybe?) On the way, we ran into his friend Kim and her host mom who were out shopping and chatted for a while. Eventually we found a radiovision, where the guy did have a USB charger for the DS, although when I got home I discovered (to my delight) that it is a charger for the DS, not the DSi. For some RIDICULOUS reason, the DS, DS Lite, and the DSi all have different chargers. Hey, Nintendo, fuck you, that sucks. Once Chris and I got back, I pretty much just sat around trying to figure out how the hell to get to OH, a club where there is a party tonight for international students from UVM and the other university here in town. I figured out where the club was and started heading out. Originally, I thought that Mai, Julianne, maybe Anna, and I were going to go down there together, but I didn't have Anna's number, Mai decided not to go, and Julianne went somewhere else with her brother first. Anyways, I started going down there alone, and quickly decided to take a colectivo, which is like a taxi but that will stop and pick up more than 1 group of people, so its usually cheaper. I actually got the same driver as the one that Chris and I took home last night, so that was kind of cool. He and I talked the whole way down, but it ended up costing 4.000 pesos because he didn't end up picking anyone else up, so it was like a taxi price. Once we got to the bar, I went inside and didn't see anyone I recognized. I figured this would happen, since I had left kind of early planning to walk, but changed my mind once I got to the street. I thought I recognized a guy named Hector who is a friend of Chris's that I had met earlier, so I went over to say hi, but I realized that it was actually a different person entirely. We exchanged greetings anyways and I sat down with him and his other friend, both of whom were from Spain. After talking with them for a while, I ended up ordering a liter of beer (I had the thought in mind that I could share it with my friends once they showed up). At Cafe Journal, the other bar we went to, the beer came in liter bottles with a couple of glasses, but apparently at OH the beer comes in GIANT Viking god sized mugs.
After hanging out with the Spaniards for about 30 or 40 minutes, finally some people I know showed up, in fact, they all showed up at the same time. I sat down with them at a table with 4 Chileans from Vina as well. I ended up sitting at the end with all of the Chileans and had a good time talking with them. Every once in a while I would switch to the other end of the table and crouch between to people and chat, just to try to mix up the conversation. Lindsey the Canadian girl was there, and whenever we went to pay, something happened (I'm not too clear on it because I had already paid for my beer by then) where she thought she had lost 10.000 pesos. This is just further proof of her massively unlucky streak. I finished my whole liter of beer, which obviously was a little much for me, but I was still pretty functional, and obviously I remember pretty well what happened. Thankfully, Trenton and his girlfriend were there (his girlfriend is from Chile), and she has a car, so they offered me a ride home. This saved me a long and difficult walk, which I'm very thankful for. I got home and promptly went to bed. The weather was pretty awesome for most of the day, but like usual it started out kind of muggy. I'm not sure, but it felt like around 62 in the morning and 70 in the afternoon.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
First days: Canadians, Aftershocks, Chasing Rodents, etc.
11 March 2010
Today is my first journal entry during my trip here in Chile, so I guess I'll start from my first couple of days. I don't know yet if I'm going to post this online to some form of blog, or if I'm just going to keep it private. If I do end up posting it I've already decided that it will remain unedited (except for spell check, of course) and have no objective of entertainment, so if this is online and you're reading it and already bored, you should probably click on to another blog. If you're reading this and you're not online, stop it! Get off of my computer. Anyways, I arrived in the morning at around 10am local time, and had to sit in the airplane for about 30 minutes before disembarking directly onto the tarmac. This didn't bother me too much, since I had a pretty cool seatmate in the window seat next to me. I think her name was Sarah, she's a Canadian, and kind of seemed like she was getting ready to go camping or something along those lines. She was pretty cool, and we made jokes about South Park and various other things. I shared my goldfish with her as well during the flight. At any rate, we parted ways when we finally disembarked from the plane.
Our luggage was sitting on the runway waiting, and we pretty much had to just look around until we found it. After that, we joined a double-overlapping line outside of a big tent to wait to go through Customs. It only took about 10 minutes to get inside of the tent, but once inside it became obvious that we still had a huge wait ahead of us. It wasn't too bad waiting, however, because I got to enjoy a few laughs with a Chilean couple making fun of an American tourist, who, to save time, decided that it would be easier to not move up very much in line, and that when there was space she would duck under the rope (luggage and all) instead of taking a few steps. Well, at least I think the Chilean couple was laughing at her, I certainly was. Eventually, I got through customs without issue and began pretty much just following the crowd out of the airport. After a certain distance a passed the security point and a huge swarm of taxi drivers descended upon me holding up signs for their respective taxi companies simply saying “Taxi? Taxi?” It reminded me of the South Park episode that featured homeless people saying “chaaaaange.” I was so overwhelmed that I actually responded to them instead of just ignoring their incessant chanting. I just told them I was looking for Rodrigo, and to my surprise they actually responded. After a brief exchange of words, several of them pointed to my right and said “Si, Roberto, te espera.” I continued walking in this manner towards another tent, where there was an even larger crowd than the customs crowd. These were all of the people waiting to pick people up from the airport, plus a lot more taxi drivers.
Fortunately, Rodrigo was holding a sign with my name on it pretty high in the air, so I saw him right away and made my way over to him. Immediately thoughts began flitting through my mind of how likely it is that the real Rodrigo was stuffed in the trunk of his own car somewhere and that this imposter Rodrigo was going to steal and sell my organs. You know, the usual O'Brien mentality. Everything went well, however, he even carried my bags (to my complaint), and after a relatively painless and brief car ride we arrived at my host family's house, complete with one of the best views of the sea I've ever seen.
My host family came outside to greet us (except for Francesca), my host mom Cecilia greeting me with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, which is customary in Chile, and with Alberto my host dad giving me a firm handshake. They welcomed me inside with a swarm of Spanish and general hospitality, offering me food, drink, etc. They also introduced me to their awesome dogs who waited happily wagging their tails on the porch. Cecilia and Alberto showed me to my room, Alberto carrying my bags (again against my complaints). Once inside, I hastily unpacked a few things, because Carlos (my adviser) had called saying that if I could I should come to an orientation at 3pm (by then it was around 2) and my family wanted to feed me lunch before I left.
We had some delicious avocado topped with tuna served atop a bed of lettuce. It was really tasty, and was then followed by mashed potatoes soaked in the juice of slow-cooked chicken, both of which were delicious! I was already bursting at the seams when Cecilia brought out some freshly cut melon and banana in a bowl for dessert, which I ate without complaint. After finally working through all of this food I was ready to go to school. Oh, and before lunch I also actually met Francesca and Chris. Francesca is my host family's only daughter (that I know of) and Chris is a student from Arizona. I hadn't known that there would be another American here, but I welcomed it as a nice thing and something to worry about at the same time. Thankfully, Chris is a smart guy and immediately addressed my concern before I even had a chance to mention it, which was that we could speak in Spanish around the house all of the time if I prefer (after spending a few days here though, it is quite nice to have someone to throw a little bit of English at just because it's less of a mental workout).
Alberto accompanied me down the block to the bus stop, where we waited with a few other international students for the bus to the more distant Rodilillo branch of the Vina campus here. It took a while for the bus to arrive, but pretty much the moment I sat down a man was standing in front of me with hand outstretched saying “Kevin?” The man is Carlos, my adviser, whom I had never met before in person, but he introduced himself immediately. He then explained everything that was going on and had happened so far that I'd missed, in a combination of Spanish and English. Once we got to the university, I once again followed the crowd to a room where we were going to get an orientation talk. This part of the university is VERY new, as was evidenced by the new paint smell and the still visible insulation on the ceiling (it hadn't been tiled yet in the room we were in). I pretty much missed everything that was said during the orientation because I was so dead tired already from having such a long flight (on which I got NO sleep) and because of my crippling illness that causes me to sleep in every classroom environment. Seriously, put me at a desk and it's better than a NASA-made bed for me to sleep in. After the presentations were done (one of which was by a student of the university advertising a party that he and a compatriot were having between the two universities here in town for the new international students),
I woke up a little bit when three other students (two from the US and one from Canada) and I had to stay behind for an extra conversation about our host family agreements. I was still only semi-conscious for this, but from what I can tell from that (and later events), the Canadian girl is the unluckiest person here. She made it sound like her host family barely even had any food in the house, let alone any to offer to her like the delicious spread I had enjoyed at lunch that day. After the meeting I had to go with Carlos to el centro to get a few photos taken for a Student ID and for a national ID card, so I waited outside of the classroom for a little while. While waiting outside, a girl approached me and said “you're Kevin, right?” with her hand outstretched, which utterly confused me. I said yes and asked for her name, which is Juliana. I asked her how she new my name, and she said that she heard the woman in the orientation about host families say, rather matter-of-factly. I felt stupid, but whatever, I hadn't slept since Sunday night. At any rate, I went with Carlos to the city and took a few photos. My host mom and sister were already in el centro as well, shopping, so instead of sending me home he dropped me off with them. They were grocery shopping, so we went and did that, which was good. We also stopped and rented a movie, and a laughed in the Blockbuster at all of the movies with different titles like: “Que ocurre ayer?” and others with titles that were completely unrelated to the movie, like the movie “Push” was instead titles “Heroes.” I'm still really not too sure how that one works, you'd understand if you've seen the movie. For the last stop, we went to the ATM to get me some Chilean money, which I had a little bit of trouble with at first because I hadn't realized that I needed to select the “foreign card” option. We went home, at some dinner, and I promptly passed out to sleep.
So that was the first day.
The next day, I had to get up really early (8am) in order to make it to the other campus here in town which is about a 15 minute walk from our house. Cecilia walked me over there, although we were actually there before Carlos. I guess that in Chile I'm actually prompt and on time, whereas in the US I'm always late, yes! Once everyone else arrived, we went into town to find a bus to go to the police to register our presence there. This is where I began to think that the Canadian girl is terribly unlucky, because she had a problem with her Student Visa where the people in the consulate who prepared it for her had done it incorrectly, because they had left off the number of days she would be staying in Chile. She just had to go home, and I still don't know if she's been able to fix it or not. We had to sit and wait for a while, and I spent most of the time talking to Juliana. It seems that everyone else in the group at Vina with student visas is French, and I can't understand them at all. I can't tell if they are speaking in Spanish with a French accent or just in French, but it's okay, because Juliana is fun to talk to anyways. After spending about an hour at the police station, we took another bus into Valparaiso to go to an office where we could apply for our national ID cards. The wait there was even longer, but it wasn't too terrible of an experience. Juliana and I spent the time making fun of various people and things, including Mohawks, which inexplicably appeared on the only TV there at the same time as we were talking about them. Juliana also spent part of the time trying to find a bathroom with running water (which I imagine was tough for her since she doesn't speak any Spanish at all). She didn't have any success in her search, which by the way was happening because she was hell-bent on washing her hair. She actually had brought a bottle of travel-sized shampoo in case we did run into running water. I found this hilarious and mocked her for it, but she just responded by mocking me, so all was cool. We finished applying for our ID cards and rode a bus back to Vina, where we parted with the French students. Carlos, Juliana, and I walked back towards the campus, where I had to take a Spanish proficiency test. Juliana left for home once we reached campus, then Carlos and I went inside. After a brief wait, I got to take the test.
The test started out with basically and interview in Spanish, which seemed to go relatively well for me, except for when I said that the murder rate in Chile is very very cheap... (I said barato, I meant to say bajo) The written test didn't go as well, I don't think. I'm relatively confident that I made up a bunch of words, and I may have even thrown in some English. It's been so long since I've taken an actual grammar class in Spanish that I just didn't remember how to do anything. After the test, I walked home, had some late lunch, (which was also delicious, it's always delicious), and then started getting ready to go with Cecilia to an appointment she had, and then to the mall to buy me a pay-as-you-go cell phone. Walking around the mall was pretty fun, and as my roommate here Chris has pointed out, the layout of the department stores doesn't seem to make any sense. In his words “Hey, where can I find the cell phones?” “Cell phones? Well, obviously, they're next to the couches and dried milk, you know, right next to the makeup section?” (Seriously, that's how it feels). Eventually, we found a phone for me which is actually a little bit nicer than my current phone, and only cost 20 dollars and comes with some minutes already.
After buying the phone, we continued wandering around the mall (we had met up with Francesca by this time) searching for a new blouse for Francesca for a ceremony she had to attend in school. Eventually we left and took a bus back to the house.
---Random side note: on a bus with our group looking for ID cards, I was standing next to the door, holding my backpack between my legs when a particularly violent jolt of the bus (they're all stick shift, so it's not a terribly smooth ride) caused my water bottle to be knocked out of its pocket and to start rolling out of the bus. Rather than jump down and grab it before it rolled out with my ninja-like reflexes, I just kind of watched it roll with a sad look on my face as people left the bus, then asked a guy to hand it to me. It was at that moment that I realized that I probably don't have secret Jason Bourne-like abilities. Sad days.----
Anyways, we got back to the house and I had yet another delicious meal cooked by Cecilia, like usual using all-natural ingredients. I've actually taken to eating raw, freshly sliced tomatoes with a little bit of salt on top. The tomatoes are so good here, I'm actually going to go ahead and blame supermarkets for why I don't like tomatoes that much, because these fresh tomatoes are so delicious and juicy, oh man. After eating, I went up to my room and sat around for a while on the internet, basically just watching boring videos and the such, trying to just chill out after a long day. At around 11 Chris came out of his room and asked me if I wanted to go with him to a bar in a little while. Contrary to popular expectation, I said sure and started getting ready.
We left at around 11:45ish to start walking to the bar. On the way, we talked about various things about Chile, mostly in English, which I didn't terribly mind. We pretty much just compared thoughts on a lot of things in Chile (which we generally agreed on, like how awesome the weather is and how great our host family is), and eventually we got to the bar. We pulled out our ID's for the bouncer there, but I'm pretty sure he barely even looked at them. We went upstairs in the bar and to the outside area, which was an open-air portion of the bar sandwiched in between the bar and another building. It was a really chill atmosphere. We then met up with a few of the other people from Chris' university (he said there are around 12 of them here) and started having a few drinks. We started with two Coronas, which came out as rum and cokes, but we just drank them anyways. After talking with Chris' friends for a while , he suggested that we go get another drink in the downstairs portion of the bar. We ended up talking to a few other students from Vina and the other university here. I actually had a really good time, again, against popular expectation, and came home just the right amount of buzzed. We took a cooperativa for half of the ride home, and both went to bed pretty quickly.
So finally I've made it to today, Thursday. Not too much happened today I didn't even leave the house. I got up around 11, I think, and pretty much just shuffled around all morning. Cecilia made some lunch when she got home at about 1, which again, was delicious. I continued to chill around the house, sitting at my laptop talking to people back home and playing some games, passing the time for when I was supposed to be on campus at 4. While I was sitting upstairs (I actually don't remember if this was before or after lunch, on second though, I think it was before lunch), there was a pretty big aftershock from last week's earthquake. At first, I though “oh cool, an aftershock.” It lasted for a really long time though, so I started to wonder if I should do anything, but, keeping to my usual form, didn't move at all. It seemed to last for about 30 seconds, maybe longer, and it didn't damage anything at all here, just rattled a few things about. Wait, yeah, this was definitely before lunch, oh well. Alberto came to my room to ask if I felt the aftershock, and he seemed very calm so I wasn't worried. He said there was a tsunami alert, so people were supposed to be ready to move to higher ground. This is why I remember now that we hadn't eaten yet, because Cecilia and Francesca came home all flustered, because they had been in el centro, so when the aftershock hit and the tsunami warning popped up, people had started to run towards the higher ground in the city. I think there's something wrong with me, because things like this just don't bother me at all, I was actually surprised to see that I was less nervous than my host mother or sister. They calmed down pretty quickly, but I suppose being in the middle of the chaos is a lot different than sitting in your room watching videos of cats wearing silly hats.
In the middle of the day, we finally got running water, which we haven't had since I've been here. I joked with my family that now I don't have an excuse to not shower, which I think has been my most successful joke so far, yes! If I can be funny in Spanish, then I'll be satisfied with my level of fluency. Our meeting got canceled today because of the aftershock (which I think was a 7.2 Richter scale) and the tsunami alert. I spent the extra time doing what I always do with extra time, playing video games. I busted out my DS and started playing one of the games that I brought with me, but when my battery started to run low and I tried to plug it into my converter, it wouldn't charge. This is strange, because my laptop charger works just fine in the converter, but not my DS charger. Most would take this a sign that they shouldn't play game boy, me, I'm going to try to buy another converter. With a dearth of technology, I was forced to instead start reading, what a shame. I ended up reading for a while then taking a nap until dinner, which was, again, delicious. They have a snack here that looks a lot like nutella, but it tastes much sweeter. It basically consists of milk, sweetened, then browned a little bit, but it is in spreadable paste form. They eat it on tortillas with powdered sugar on top. Amazingly enough, it was a little bit too sweet for me.
After dinner, I came back upstairs to fool around on my laptop, but I was shortly interrupted by panicked yelling downstairs from Cecilia. I hopped up and started heading downstairs, catching garbled phrases about dogs or something, and passing Francesca who had turned away, looked really upset like she didn't want to see or something and was covering her ears. It was probably the most frightened I've been so far, my imagination ran wild with ideas of seeing someone in the street being attacked by a pack of wild dogs, but I instead came downstairs to see Alberto chasing one of their dogs outside from the kitchen. I just kind of kept walking towards the glass door and looked at Cecilia who was talking really rapidly, then looked down and saw Francesca's little pet gerbil (rat, hamster, mouse?) running on the hardwood floor. I snatched him up, realizing that the trauma was that one of the dogs had attacked his cage, so he was getting chased around the couch by the dog. I safely delivered the rodent to a relieved Francesca, feeling somewhat heroic, then came back up here. Well, that's it for today and the summary of the past two days. Man, this is ridiculously long, methinks I'll go into less detail for my next entries... Oh, and the weather has been about 70 degrees and sunny, starting out cloudy in the morning then having the sun come out... for reference.
Today is my first journal entry during my trip here in Chile, so I guess I'll start from my first couple of days. I don't know yet if I'm going to post this online to some form of blog, or if I'm just going to keep it private. If I do end up posting it I've already decided that it will remain unedited (except for spell check, of course) and have no objective of entertainment, so if this is online and you're reading it and already bored, you should probably click on to another blog. If you're reading this and you're not online, stop it! Get off of my computer. Anyways, I arrived in the morning at around 10am local time, and had to sit in the airplane for about 30 minutes before disembarking directly onto the tarmac. This didn't bother me too much, since I had a pretty cool seatmate in the window seat next to me. I think her name was Sarah, she's a Canadian, and kind of seemed like she was getting ready to go camping or something along those lines. She was pretty cool, and we made jokes about South Park and various other things. I shared my goldfish with her as well during the flight. At any rate, we parted ways when we finally disembarked from the plane.
Our luggage was sitting on the runway waiting, and we pretty much had to just look around until we found it. After that, we joined a double-overlapping line outside of a big tent to wait to go through Customs. It only took about 10 minutes to get inside of the tent, but once inside it became obvious that we still had a huge wait ahead of us. It wasn't too bad waiting, however, because I got to enjoy a few laughs with a Chilean couple making fun of an American tourist, who, to save time, decided that it would be easier to not move up very much in line, and that when there was space she would duck under the rope (luggage and all) instead of taking a few steps. Well, at least I think the Chilean couple was laughing at her, I certainly was. Eventually, I got through customs without issue and began pretty much just following the crowd out of the airport. After a certain distance a passed the security point and a huge swarm of taxi drivers descended upon me holding up signs for their respective taxi companies simply saying “Taxi? Taxi?” It reminded me of the South Park episode that featured homeless people saying “chaaaaange.” I was so overwhelmed that I actually responded to them instead of just ignoring their incessant chanting. I just told them I was looking for Rodrigo, and to my surprise they actually responded. After a brief exchange of words, several of them pointed to my right and said “Si, Roberto, te espera.” I continued walking in this manner towards another tent, where there was an even larger crowd than the customs crowd. These were all of the people waiting to pick people up from the airport, plus a lot more taxi drivers.
Fortunately, Rodrigo was holding a sign with my name on it pretty high in the air, so I saw him right away and made my way over to him. Immediately thoughts began flitting through my mind of how likely it is that the real Rodrigo was stuffed in the trunk of his own car somewhere and that this imposter Rodrigo was going to steal and sell my organs. You know, the usual O'Brien mentality. Everything went well, however, he even carried my bags (to my complaint), and after a relatively painless and brief car ride we arrived at my host family's house, complete with one of the best views of the sea I've ever seen.
My host family came outside to greet us (except for Francesca), my host mom Cecilia greeting me with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, which is customary in Chile, and with Alberto my host dad giving me a firm handshake. They welcomed me inside with a swarm of Spanish and general hospitality, offering me food, drink, etc. They also introduced me to their awesome dogs who waited happily wagging their tails on the porch. Cecilia and Alberto showed me to my room, Alberto carrying my bags (again against my complaints). Once inside, I hastily unpacked a few things, because Carlos (my adviser) had called saying that if I could I should come to an orientation at 3pm (by then it was around 2) and my family wanted to feed me lunch before I left.
We had some delicious avocado topped with tuna served atop a bed of lettuce. It was really tasty, and was then followed by mashed potatoes soaked in the juice of slow-cooked chicken, both of which were delicious! I was already bursting at the seams when Cecilia brought out some freshly cut melon and banana in a bowl for dessert, which I ate without complaint. After finally working through all of this food I was ready to go to school. Oh, and before lunch I also actually met Francesca and Chris. Francesca is my host family's only daughter (that I know of) and Chris is a student from Arizona. I hadn't known that there would be another American here, but I welcomed it as a nice thing and something to worry about at the same time. Thankfully, Chris is a smart guy and immediately addressed my concern before I even had a chance to mention it, which was that we could speak in Spanish around the house all of the time if I prefer (after spending a few days here though, it is quite nice to have someone to throw a little bit of English at just because it's less of a mental workout).
Alberto accompanied me down the block to the bus stop, where we waited with a few other international students for the bus to the more distant Rodilillo branch of the Vina campus here. It took a while for the bus to arrive, but pretty much the moment I sat down a man was standing in front of me with hand outstretched saying “Kevin?” The man is Carlos, my adviser, whom I had never met before in person, but he introduced himself immediately. He then explained everything that was going on and had happened so far that I'd missed, in a combination of Spanish and English. Once we got to the university, I once again followed the crowd to a room where we were going to get an orientation talk. This part of the university is VERY new, as was evidenced by the new paint smell and the still visible insulation on the ceiling (it hadn't been tiled yet in the room we were in). I pretty much missed everything that was said during the orientation because I was so dead tired already from having such a long flight (on which I got NO sleep) and because of my crippling illness that causes me to sleep in every classroom environment. Seriously, put me at a desk and it's better than a NASA-made bed for me to sleep in. After the presentations were done (one of which was by a student of the university advertising a party that he and a compatriot were having between the two universities here in town for the new international students),
I woke up a little bit when three other students (two from the US and one from Canada) and I had to stay behind for an extra conversation about our host family agreements. I was still only semi-conscious for this, but from what I can tell from that (and later events), the Canadian girl is the unluckiest person here. She made it sound like her host family barely even had any food in the house, let alone any to offer to her like the delicious spread I had enjoyed at lunch that day. After the meeting I had to go with Carlos to el centro to get a few photos taken for a Student ID and for a national ID card, so I waited outside of the classroom for a little while. While waiting outside, a girl approached me and said “you're Kevin, right?” with her hand outstretched, which utterly confused me. I said yes and asked for her name, which is Juliana. I asked her how she new my name, and she said that she heard the woman in the orientation about host families say, rather matter-of-factly. I felt stupid, but whatever, I hadn't slept since Sunday night. At any rate, I went with Carlos to the city and took a few photos. My host mom and sister were already in el centro as well, shopping, so instead of sending me home he dropped me off with them. They were grocery shopping, so we went and did that, which was good. We also stopped and rented a movie, and a laughed in the Blockbuster at all of the movies with different titles like: “Que ocurre ayer?” and others with titles that were completely unrelated to the movie, like the movie “Push” was instead titles “Heroes.” I'm still really not too sure how that one works, you'd understand if you've seen the movie. For the last stop, we went to the ATM to get me some Chilean money, which I had a little bit of trouble with at first because I hadn't realized that I needed to select the “foreign card” option. We went home, at some dinner, and I promptly passed out to sleep.
So that was the first day.
The next day, I had to get up really early (8am) in order to make it to the other campus here in town which is about a 15 minute walk from our house. Cecilia walked me over there, although we were actually there before Carlos. I guess that in Chile I'm actually prompt and on time, whereas in the US I'm always late, yes! Once everyone else arrived, we went into town to find a bus to go to the police to register our presence there. This is where I began to think that the Canadian girl is terribly unlucky, because she had a problem with her Student Visa where the people in the consulate who prepared it for her had done it incorrectly, because they had left off the number of days she would be staying in Chile. She just had to go home, and I still don't know if she's been able to fix it or not. We had to sit and wait for a while, and I spent most of the time talking to Juliana. It seems that everyone else in the group at Vina with student visas is French, and I can't understand them at all. I can't tell if they are speaking in Spanish with a French accent or just in French, but it's okay, because Juliana is fun to talk to anyways. After spending about an hour at the police station, we took another bus into Valparaiso to go to an office where we could apply for our national ID cards. The wait there was even longer, but it wasn't too terrible of an experience. Juliana and I spent the time making fun of various people and things, including Mohawks, which inexplicably appeared on the only TV there at the same time as we were talking about them. Juliana also spent part of the time trying to find a bathroom with running water (which I imagine was tough for her since she doesn't speak any Spanish at all). She didn't have any success in her search, which by the way was happening because she was hell-bent on washing her hair. She actually had brought a bottle of travel-sized shampoo in case we did run into running water. I found this hilarious and mocked her for it, but she just responded by mocking me, so all was cool. We finished applying for our ID cards and rode a bus back to Vina, where we parted with the French students. Carlos, Juliana, and I walked back towards the campus, where I had to take a Spanish proficiency test. Juliana left for home once we reached campus, then Carlos and I went inside. After a brief wait, I got to take the test.
The test started out with basically and interview in Spanish, which seemed to go relatively well for me, except for when I said that the murder rate in Chile is very very cheap... (I said barato, I meant to say bajo) The written test didn't go as well, I don't think. I'm relatively confident that I made up a bunch of words, and I may have even thrown in some English. It's been so long since I've taken an actual grammar class in Spanish that I just didn't remember how to do anything. After the test, I walked home, had some late lunch, (which was also delicious, it's always delicious), and then started getting ready to go with Cecilia to an appointment she had, and then to the mall to buy me a pay-as-you-go cell phone. Walking around the mall was pretty fun, and as my roommate here Chris has pointed out, the layout of the department stores doesn't seem to make any sense. In his words “Hey, where can I find the cell phones?” “Cell phones? Well, obviously, they're next to the couches and dried milk, you know, right next to the makeup section?” (Seriously, that's how it feels). Eventually, we found a phone for me which is actually a little bit nicer than my current phone, and only cost 20 dollars and comes with some minutes already.
After buying the phone, we continued wandering around the mall (we had met up with Francesca by this time) searching for a new blouse for Francesca for a ceremony she had to attend in school. Eventually we left and took a bus back to the house.
---Random side note: on a bus with our group looking for ID cards, I was standing next to the door, holding my backpack between my legs when a particularly violent jolt of the bus (they're all stick shift, so it's not a terribly smooth ride) caused my water bottle to be knocked out of its pocket and to start rolling out of the bus. Rather than jump down and grab it before it rolled out with my ninja-like reflexes, I just kind of watched it roll with a sad look on my face as people left the bus, then asked a guy to hand it to me. It was at that moment that I realized that I probably don't have secret Jason Bourne-like abilities. Sad days.----
Anyways, we got back to the house and I had yet another delicious meal cooked by Cecilia, like usual using all-natural ingredients. I've actually taken to eating raw, freshly sliced tomatoes with a little bit of salt on top. The tomatoes are so good here, I'm actually going to go ahead and blame supermarkets for why I don't like tomatoes that much, because these fresh tomatoes are so delicious and juicy, oh man. After eating, I went up to my room and sat around for a while on the internet, basically just watching boring videos and the such, trying to just chill out after a long day. At around 11 Chris came out of his room and asked me if I wanted to go with him to a bar in a little while. Contrary to popular expectation, I said sure and started getting ready.
We left at around 11:45ish to start walking to the bar. On the way, we talked about various things about Chile, mostly in English, which I didn't terribly mind. We pretty much just compared thoughts on a lot of things in Chile (which we generally agreed on, like how awesome the weather is and how great our host family is), and eventually we got to the bar. We pulled out our ID's for the bouncer there, but I'm pretty sure he barely even looked at them. We went upstairs in the bar and to the outside area, which was an open-air portion of the bar sandwiched in between the bar and another building. It was a really chill atmosphere. We then met up with a few of the other people from Chris' university (he said there are around 12 of them here) and started having a few drinks. We started with two Coronas, which came out as rum and cokes, but we just drank them anyways. After talking with Chris' friends for a while , he suggested that we go get another drink in the downstairs portion of the bar. We ended up talking to a few other students from Vina and the other university here. I actually had a really good time, again, against popular expectation, and came home just the right amount of buzzed. We took a cooperativa for half of the ride home, and both went to bed pretty quickly.
So finally I've made it to today, Thursday. Not too much happened today I didn't even leave the house. I got up around 11, I think, and pretty much just shuffled around all morning. Cecilia made some lunch when she got home at about 1, which again, was delicious. I continued to chill around the house, sitting at my laptop talking to people back home and playing some games, passing the time for when I was supposed to be on campus at 4. While I was sitting upstairs (I actually don't remember if this was before or after lunch, on second though, I think it was before lunch), there was a pretty big aftershock from last week's earthquake. At first, I though “oh cool, an aftershock.” It lasted for a really long time though, so I started to wonder if I should do anything, but, keeping to my usual form, didn't move at all. It seemed to last for about 30 seconds, maybe longer, and it didn't damage anything at all here, just rattled a few things about. Wait, yeah, this was definitely before lunch, oh well. Alberto came to my room to ask if I felt the aftershock, and he seemed very calm so I wasn't worried. He said there was a tsunami alert, so people were supposed to be ready to move to higher ground. This is why I remember now that we hadn't eaten yet, because Cecilia and Francesca came home all flustered, because they had been in el centro, so when the aftershock hit and the tsunami warning popped up, people had started to run towards the higher ground in the city. I think there's something wrong with me, because things like this just don't bother me at all, I was actually surprised to see that I was less nervous than my host mother or sister. They calmed down pretty quickly, but I suppose being in the middle of the chaos is a lot different than sitting in your room watching videos of cats wearing silly hats.
In the middle of the day, we finally got running water, which we haven't had since I've been here. I joked with my family that now I don't have an excuse to not shower, which I think has been my most successful joke so far, yes! If I can be funny in Spanish, then I'll be satisfied with my level of fluency. Our meeting got canceled today because of the aftershock (which I think was a 7.2 Richter scale) and the tsunami alert. I spent the extra time doing what I always do with extra time, playing video games. I busted out my DS and started playing one of the games that I brought with me, but when my battery started to run low and I tried to plug it into my converter, it wouldn't charge. This is strange, because my laptop charger works just fine in the converter, but not my DS charger. Most would take this a sign that they shouldn't play game boy, me, I'm going to try to buy another converter. With a dearth of technology, I was forced to instead start reading, what a shame. I ended up reading for a while then taking a nap until dinner, which was, again, delicious. They have a snack here that looks a lot like nutella, but it tastes much sweeter. It basically consists of milk, sweetened, then browned a little bit, but it is in spreadable paste form. They eat it on tortillas with powdered sugar on top. Amazingly enough, it was a little bit too sweet for me.
After dinner, I came back upstairs to fool around on my laptop, but I was shortly interrupted by panicked yelling downstairs from Cecilia. I hopped up and started heading downstairs, catching garbled phrases about dogs or something, and passing Francesca who had turned away, looked really upset like she didn't want to see or something and was covering her ears. It was probably the most frightened I've been so far, my imagination ran wild with ideas of seeing someone in the street being attacked by a pack of wild dogs, but I instead came downstairs to see Alberto chasing one of their dogs outside from the kitchen. I just kind of kept walking towards the glass door and looked at Cecilia who was talking really rapidly, then looked down and saw Francesca's little pet gerbil (rat, hamster, mouse?) running on the hardwood floor. I snatched him up, realizing that the trauma was that one of the dogs had attacked his cage, so he was getting chased around the couch by the dog. I safely delivered the rodent to a relieved Francesca, feeling somewhat heroic, then came back up here. Well, that's it for today and the summary of the past two days. Man, this is ridiculously long, methinks I'll go into less detail for my next entries... Oh, and the weather has been about 70 degrees and sunny, starting out cloudy in the morning then having the sun come out... for reference.
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