Si po

Turns out I have been here a month and a half now, well 7 weeks someone said yesterday. Where has the time gone?! I feel like I am going home so soon, but then I remember I've still got about 2.5 more months. hahahaha Which is good and bad for sure. Good because my spanish has gotten SOOO much better, especially this past week I realize how much more I can understand. I've said in the past that I can follow the conversations pretty well, but now I am following and understanding beyond facial expressions and key words. Its great! But with 2.5 months, thats still a long time. This week I have been dreaming about home; family, friends, housing stuff...
I last left off just before heading out for the biiig holiday. And big it is. Thursday I went with Laura and Shelby to the ramada at like 5 or so (really early, but everyone said it gets dangerous at night, so we wanted to check it out on our own during the day and from there we could maybe go out again at night...). Its crazy! The ramada is a place to dance the queca and hang out, but it also cost $7 to get in- so we didn't actually go in the "official ramada" but outside of this little "hut" (in this sporting complex they build stands and hut like things out of some wood but mostly branches and palm leaves etc) is this big fair. Just like in the states with carnival rides and cotton candy and shops. In the middle is the "food court" which is actually 2 aisles of these stands (with seating inside, so more like mini resturants) that sell typical chileno holiday food (ie pino empanadas and bbq meat shiskabobs) and alcohol- chicha, beer, wine and pisco. So we sat in one of these booths and had a bottle of beer, shopped a little and went back for dinner. After dinner (more empanadas, me and my mom and sister made a TON of empanadas, we had them all weekend. hahahaha) I went back to the ramada with my brothers, sister and their significant others. We didn't even leave til 11... and they were so worried about me getting lost or snatched or something that my sister's pololo walked with his hand on my shoulder the entire time... Thats nice that they were concerned, but it wasn't that dangerous. After all their warnings I had expected it to be a lot worse/scarier etc.... oh well. After walking around there, trying some chicha (gross! its mostly fermented grapes and apples and really sweet but I think its an aquired taste or something. not my thing for sure) we walked to the beach and walked home along the beach and got home about 1. A nice family outting in the middle of the night... hahahahaha
Friday was pretty uneventful. Went to the beach with the gringos. Saturday hung out around the house, went into town to walk around for a little and then came back for dinner and then went baaack to sporting to check out the last night of the ramada. We met up with the boys as they were all back from their trips and Will had brought his brother and his brother brought his friends so we hung out with them. They were out more to carretear (the chileno verb 'to party') so we ended up staying at the ramada (by ramada i mean fair) until about 3 and then went to the house of one of the chilenos til the sun came up... it was quite a night for sure. hahahaha
Monday we had classes again... the week went by soo fast! My politics teacher is out of the country for the month and so we have a sub and we have been talking about voting and stuff here so for homework this weekend we have to go interview 5 people about if they have voted, what they would change to get more people to vote, etc. etc. (we've got 4 questions to ask) and to get a good representation of the population we are in pairs and each pair has a group of people to ask- ie men, women, young adults, the elderly and the handicapped. Well me and my partner are supposed to interview the handicapped.... talk about intense! Chile has a lot of handicapped people, way more than the US. buuut they dont have the same benefits as people in the us (ie all buildings have stairs and very few have elevators or ramps) so thats really interesting. So today Shelby (my partner) and I went with her mom to a place that is a home for the blind and interviewed the director (shelby's mom is a workout instructor and gives classes in the building next to this home/school). It was sooo interesting! He is blind and typed out our questions in braille because our spanish is hard to follow i guess... and then sat and talked with us for about half an hour about voting and everything. It was reallly cool. Who would've thought I would be in Chile talking to blind man about voting and politics?!
Oh yesterday we had our RSU (responsibilidad social universitario- aka volunteering lecture) and we went to a refugio for boys. that was really interesting too. Its basically a boys home for troubled boys or boys who come from extremely poor families. the home we were at was for boys 12-20 and we got a tour and then hung out with them for a while, the boys played soccer and the girls made kites, we ate dinner with them and everythign. it was really cool! another thing i didn't think i would be doing in chile! hahahaha
Visiting the school for the blind and the trip to the refugio and the politics stuff really should have its own blog, so hopefully I will get around to that this weekend. I am learning soooo much!!! Its incredible! And there is so much I want to show people and tell everyone, but I just cant do it all justice...
My mom and dad and Steve are coming at the end of November for a quick trip!!! That should be sooo fun! How I am going to pick and choose what to show them is beyond me, but I guess I've got a few months to figure that out. hahahahaha
I hope everyone is well! I miss you!!! enjoy the fall! spring is on its way here!!!!
Chau!!!




p.s. I realize some of those sentences are HORRIBLY worded, that would be the spanish talking. jajajajaja