Hola!

My first few weeks in Chile have been so exciting and new and fun and frusterating all at once. The frusterating part is, obviously, the language barrier. There are times at the end of the day when my brain just feels like mush from trying so hard to think and speak and comprehend a different language. But I am learning quickly and that is ultimately why I came to Chile: to learn Spanish!

The weather: Right now it is winter in Chile. Winter here is not really anything like winter in the midwest (thank god!); it is more similar to our Fall. The nights and the early mornings can be cold; I can see my breath in my room sometimes. Also, there is a lot of rain. It's been raining so much this past week that the ocean turned brown from all the dirt that ran down from the hills. Other than this last week, the sun has been shining and the weather has been pretty nice. I can't wait for it to warm up so I can go to the beach!

My Family: My host mother's name is Patricia and she is a retired, single mother of two girls. Valentina is 20 years old and Carolina is the oldest but I dont know her age. Valentina speaks fairly good english which helps sometimes when I don't understand something. I also met my host grandma, Ilda or "mami" as we call her. She is 93 years old and still kickin'.

My apartment: We live on top of a hill in an apartment on the 3rd floor. We have the best view overlooking all of Vina del Mar and the ocean. On my first few nights, I sat by the window and read a book, watching the sun set. My favorite part is my bed :). I have an electric blanket (that all of my friends are jealous of) so when I hop into bed its nice and warm and I sleep like a baby.

The food: I love breakfast; I always eat fresh fruit with yogurt and granola, toast with jelly and some tea to warm me up. Lunch is late, around 2 or 3, and we usually eat meat like chicken or pork with rice or potatoes and a salad. Desert is like a rice pudding, ice cream or sometimes a sweet bread. They don't really eat dinner on a regular basis. Instead we have "once" which is like a snack of toast and tea or hot chocolate. My host family eats a lot of bread. Hot dogs, avocados and mayonaise are also really popular. The other day my host mom put mayonaise on her crackers. I tried it; it was gross.

School: We had a week of orientation at my school, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. I met a lot of nice international students and our guide, Felipe, was also really cool. He helped us get to know the city, campus and also helped us pick out our classes. This is what I am taking this semester:
Traditional Dances
Chilean Poetry
Chilean Short Stories
History of Latin America in the 20th century
Art and Society of Prehispanic Chile

Con Amor,
(With love)
Jessica