Huevones

I had a weird couple of homesick days a couple weeks ago, but now I feel like I'm kind of adjusting. The language barrier thing is still pretty rough, but I'm improving. It's hard though. Kind of harder than I think I thought it was going to be. Generally I'm still lost, especially when I'm tired. It's incredibly easy to just tune everything out. Making progress feels pretty good though... some days I feel like I actually can understand what's going on. Some of the vocabulary stuff is weird though. People tell me words all the time and I instantly forget them because it feels so arbitrary, you know?
It's crazy to me that I've been here for over a month. It's crazy to me that I've been kind of half communicating for a month... that's a long time to be lost. My English has deteriorated significantly.

I've been trying to hang out with Chileans. They're growing on me. At first there were some cultural things that bugged me a little bit, but I'm getting used to them. For example, barriers regarding like, that personal space bubble are much less defined. It seems to me that Chileans are pretty affectionate people. Kiss greetings for sure (obviously), but it's much more apparent in other ways I think - I hung out with a group of 14 year olds one night and all the boys were kind of cuddling, everybody touches each other more, doors are open (like bedroom doors at night), little things... and it's hard to explain (I don't understand what I'm trying to explain really), but the whole system of interacting is a little bit different. Anyway. I enjoy trying to speak Spanish coherently, so it's pretty cool that nobody in my family speaks any English. Last night Chile won a big fútbol game and I went to mob (literally) with them in the street and and then to a couple of carettes which is always interesting. We got back home at 3:30 this morning, which is kind of early for Chileans, but it was a school night so you know...

Last weekend our whole program (58 gringos) went to this random town called Lebu for some sort of "cultural" adventure. Apparently it is a poor area. Anyway. We all stayed with different families, which was pretty cool but also kind of a bummer, especially because our "hermanos" were in colegio. Which is high school. Mine was 14. All things considered, it was a good experience... she was super sweet and I liked her a lot. Staying in her house was pretty interesting too, it's her, her 18 year old brother, and her mom. The house was small - the mom and daughter kind of shared a room (there was a dividing wall but no doors, so it was kind of like, two rooms that opened off the living room, open) and I don't know if there was hot water because I didn't attempt to shower. We went to the playa one day which was cool... not warm enough to lie out but we did some cave exploration and lot of walking. I also got to hang out (read: drink pisco and smoke cigarettes) with 14-year-olds in 14-year-old situations which was kind of funny but also kind of weird hahahahaha. When in Chile, right?

Here are some other significant observations/comments since I'm tired and don't feel like writing out real sentences.
-Stray dogs. Everywhere. All the time. They're usually sweet, there's one in particular that has walked with me to school a couple times.
-Smoking cigarettes inside. Always. I kind of like it but it's also kind of annoying when like 9 people are smoking cigarettes in a small room because the smoke is really hard on your eyes and stuff.
-Speaking of smoking, it's kind of fashionable I think. All the young people smoke when they go out at night. When my madre was describing the difference between a carette and a fiesta she literally said that a carette is when young people smoke cigarettes, drink, and dance. All the girls smoke these awful light cigarettes called Kents. Sometimes Belmonts.
-Reggeaton. This song is I think #1 or whatever right now. I hear it literally everywhere. All day long.
-Because the economy is like, collapsing the exchange rate right now is excellent for me. Sucks for Chileans because the peso is seriously failing.
-Alcohol is pretty cheap. You can get a liter of (decent) rum with a big bottle of coke for like $5. I drink this excellent type of beer um, every single day. It's dark and so delicious. I like to go to this place that has it on tap - it's possible to get a big mug or whatever (schop) for $1400 pesos which is almost exactly $2.25. Perfecto.
-I have been more thrilled about food in my life. I'm going to leave it at that.

I made a photobucket.
However, I'm mildly technologically retarded and I can't figure out how to make it look better.

Valdivia

I have been sitting in bed all day drinking instant espresso (which I prefer to instant coffee) pretending to read 40 pages in Spanish. Nope.

This weekend I went to Valdivia, this city about six hours South of Concepción. By the way, I know how to make accents with my keyboard now. And Google speaks English again. Figuring this shit out. It was a cool place, we arrived at 6am and dropped off our stuff at the hostel before heading down to the fish market. Where there were SEA LIONS. Pretty cool. Had a little breakfast adventure, obtained dinner supplies from the fish market, and set off to check out this island with the ruins of an old Spanish fort... sick.



Afterwards we decided to stop in for a visit at the brewery that produces Chile's artisan beers - Kunstmann. We purchased a couple columns (yes, personal taps, see left) and went to work. A few hours later we returned to the hostel and for cooking, drinking, dinner, and activities. I have nothing to say about this except that I was sleeping by probably 9pm, and in the morning we realized one of our amigos was missing and consequentially in Chilean jail.
Whoops.
Saturday included an epic hike through the country near the coast (incredible views, and killer hills) some random German restaurant, and another midnight bus ride home.

¿Qué?

I have no idea what's going on. Even my cell phone and the internet (apparently) speak Spanish. Difficult.

I arrived in Concepción 10 days ago, met my host family a week ago. The whole "experience" has been totally overwhelming and exhausting, especially the last few days, which I have spent with um, basically the entire family I imagine, since I met like 50 people, at my host parents' country house. This particular weekend was the 18th, Chile's independence day (weekend?), which is celebrated by copious amounts of meat items and traditional dance. Endless empanadas and completos (hot dogs SMOTHERED (I can think of no better word) in mayonnaise, among other condiments).
I also got to drink some exciting things: wine punches, "fancheta" (beer + fanta), and this "juice" that consists of barley (like, the grain) in a cup of the juice from canned peaches. So basically rice in sugar water.
I also spent a good deal of time smoking cigarettes, drinking various pisco concoctions, rapping in English (which my hermana and her boyfriend find amusing), learning various words that mean drunk, listing to reggaeton, and saying "no entiendo". FELIZ 18! VIVA CHILE!

I start classes tomorrow, which is actually kind of exciting because I really want to learn and understand.