My First Hamburger in Eight Years

Yes, you read that right, I ate a hamburger. I'm going to pause for a while and let the significance of that sink in. Ironically, I had to come to Chile to eat it. Did I mention that I've also been eating more cereal than I have since... France? What is it about leaving the US that makes me identify with my American heritage so much more? I think I could get used to this. The being American thing, not the hamburger eating. That I suppose I have no choice but to get used to.
Well since I last wrote, I went to another two days of school and... I met my host-family! Thursday morning was a huge improvment on Wednesday. I was beggining to understand some of what people said (I suppose I'm getting more used to hearing Spanish) and people seemed more comfortable talking to me. At this point I'm hardly what you would call a great conversationalist, but I appreciate when people make the effort to make me feel included. I got a bit of a language lesson outside of the normal school curriculum (my Spanish teacher seems a bit scary) as well as math and History. We had a test in math, but History was pretty fun. We talked about the Encomienda system and I actually understood some of it! Then after going home for lunch I had biology and P.A.S. I'm fairly certain that Biology was mainly a discussion of STD's and birth control, but at that point I was exhausted and paying attention would have simply cost too much effort. I was feeling a little bit better by P.A.S. time, but I still have no idea what it stands for. It seemed to be an additional Spanish class though. Maybe grammar? Oh, did I mention that Fabio, the guy I sit next to, ´s new favorite game has become: Quiz Erika about random American brands and cities? I think he's trying to place me on the social scale, but it's a bit annoying/amusing. For the record, no, I do not have a Northface jacket or a macbook.

After school on Thursday I packed up my stuff and went to meet my host family! I didn't do much except go to bed that first night and I had school friday morning, so I didn't really spend that much time with them until the weekend. First however, let me tell you about Friday. I'd been feeling a bit overwhelmed by meeting my host-family etc. and out of my comfort zone so I was really not looking forward to going to school, but it was much better than I had anticipated. We had Physics, Lenguaje and, wait for it, English! Yes, this may have been the highlight of my week, but probably not. The teacher's English wasn't perfect, but it was so much better than most of the people at my school 's English. We talked about Twisters and the Wizard of Oz. Ironically the Wizard of Oz came up twice on Friday, once in English class and once when my host-family was trying to explain straw to me.

After school on Friday I went with my host-mom and host-sister to the centro where we walked around the feria (market) and hung out. I will gladly admit that I was half asleep at this point. I only got to sleep nine or ten hours that night because my host-brother, Alvaro's primero communion was on saturday. We went to the church with my extended host-family (my host-dad's mom, my host-mom's mom and grandma and grandpa etc). It was through the school (they go to the liceo catolico) and it was a bit long with a lot of standing, but afterwards we went home for an Asado (barbeque). Elizabeth and I played with her little cousins, and I threw a football (yes, american) with Alvaro. It was fun and since then, things have gotten less awkward.

After sleeping 12 hours saturday night, I got up this morning and helped make pankekes con manjar. They're sort of like crepes with dulce de lece filling, and as you can imagine, they were delicious! For lunch we had some more meat. I miss vegetables and water! They eat tomato, cucumber, celery etc. salads, but not without salt. Tea is also taken with artificial sweetner. I probably should not find this weird, but I do.
Did I mention that I have three host-dogs? A family of German shepherds! There's even a baby of three months. He's adorable, but rather mischevious. Their attitude towards dogs is very different here, or at least it is in my family. In the US we tend to treat our dogs like humans, let them sleep in our beds, cuddle with them etc. but here the dogs stay outside and are treated like... dogs. We spent some time trying to train the puppy (achilla), but it was more through dominance than the positive reinforcement methods I'm used to it. After the dog training session, my host-dad attempted to teach me to play the guitar and we had a Beatles sing-along. The only problem is that I can't sing. Maybe that will change after a year here, but I think not!