Thursday:
We woke up for breakfast and then took a placement test for the spanish class we will be in. Not fun. Then we all took turns doing oral interviews with ladies from Butler, I think. Maybe they were from the University... I fell asleep in the hallway while everyone else was taking their turn because I was last. Another meeting after the interviews - safety. Then we had lunch in the hotel again and were sent out to do an orientation exercise to get us familiar with the city. In groups of 2 or 3 we were sent out with a specific question about the city to answer. Ana and I had an address that were had to visit and tell what was there. It was the library and the tourist office. We finished our question in like 15 minutes so we had some hours to kill just seeing more of the city. We found a little bar/restaurant that looked nice and shaded so we just hung out there for a while. Two more guys from our group showed up and then we looked around at some bookstores and jewelry shops that were in the vicinity. We ran into a few other groups while we were out and we were all trying to speak only in Spanish. It didn't last long with Ana and me. The Phone Box Cafe was the name of the place we were at, and the patio had a really awesome terrace with grape vines and even a bunch of grapes. We just sat and people watched.
We presented what we found once we returned to the hotel and then we all got ready for dinner with our host families. Margarita y Arturo picked me up at 8 and we drove to their house, about 10 minutes away. Really nice place. They have a pool and a really nice garden, a dog (bassett hound) and my room here is bigger than my room at home. I was so nervous at first... I wasn't even understanding basic spanish. And Chileans speak so fast, so many words just trail off or the end sounds are non existant. But they speak really decent english so when I was just drawing blanks they spoke to me in english. I brought a set of dominos with texas and the state flag on them so after dinner we played a little. I had to be back at midnight, so we left around 1150. Most people got back at the same time and so we decided that we wanted to go out again.
Set out for an Irish Pub, but when we got there at 130, the owner said that they were closing. But he asked if we were familiar with a certain sushi bar. Obviously, we were not. So he walked us there. It was like 5 minutes away and he walked us all the way to the door. Very cool. People in the US don't do that. There were not many people in the bar and we found a lounge where we could all sit comfortably. Our group was a little smaller than the night before, so it was easier for the six of us to hold a single conversation, whereas Wed night there were like 3 or 4 going on at one time. We took the bus back to the hotel around 3 or 330 and decided we weren't ready for bed. So we all went swimming. :)
Friday:
Breakfast was supposed to be at 9, with our first meeting of the day at 930. Ana and I got a wake up call at 935. And so began a very long day of orientation meetings... We had like four of them, almost in a row. There were coffee breaks and a lunch between some of them, but it was still really boring.
After they were all done, around 3, we had some free time before our last . Ana went to buy a cell and I tried to organize what had become a mountain of clothes in my suitcase, since we were leaving in the morning. Then Ana napped while I blogged a little bit and afterwards we swam in the pool for 30 minutes or so.
I had a meeting with one of the IFSA directors out in the garden about what classes I wanted to take. While we were doing out meeting the hotel people were setting up for a wedding. And since there was to be a ceremony and reception, we all went out for dinner instead of eating at the hotel. We ate at a place called Dona Tina. Classy. I'm so impressed with the formality of meals here. At the hotel, the restaurant and at the host house the meal always begins with an appetizer, then the meal comes, and we always have dessert.
When we returned to the hotel Manquehue, we asked the receptionist where a good place to go dancing was. So we called cabs and went to Las Urracas.
1. It was expensive. Ladies were free but it cost 13 for guys. Oh, but they got one "free" drink....
2. It was old. There were men that were balding. Balding!
3. It was crowded. There was almost no room at all to do any dancing. There was a room with techno that was near empty, so we sucked it up and tried to make the best of it. I mean, there were 13 of us; we were a club in ourselves.
Once we had enough techno, some of us went across the street to a bar, just to sit down and be able to hear one another. There were some Chileans near us and before long our groups had merged. It was really great to be able to hold conversations. Many of them knew a little english so they could correct us when we didn't know a phrase or a difficult word, but we were all getting along pretty well, spanish-wise. Back at the hotel, the wedding party was just leaving so we crashed it for a few minutes, but most people had already left and it wasn't very impressive.
Saturday:
Woke up late. Again. Ana swears that she set our alarm before we even went out the night before, but we got that wake up call again... and STILL had to finish packing all our stuff up. One more meeting and then we all waited for host families to arrive. When I got to my host house, I unpacked, had lunch, showered and played with Martina, my host...niece? Anyway, then I tried to skype, but fell asleep. Five hour long power nap. Much needed. When I woke up it was dinner time and I successfully talked with family (but had just missed Connor), Spenser and Ana. We decided to hang out at the neighborhood plaza, so I took a RadioTaxi to her place and we met up with some other people who lived nearby. Some of them had host brothers that were our age and we got to practicing our spanish again. Then we moved inside to somewhere else to eat since it was getting cold outside. I forget what its called, but we had this entire plate of french fries, covered in sausage and beef, topped with two eggs. Soooo good. Then we all went our separate ways, but when my Taxi driver dropped me off, he drove to my street, but at the wrong side, since it was a one-way. So I had to walk like, half a block to my house, but I realized that at night I might not recognize it. I knew the address so I just looked at the house numbers. But then the numbers passed the one I needed and I freaked for like, 2 seconds and realized my house was on the other side of the street. Felt pretty dumb. But there were no meetings the next morning, so I could FINALLY sleep as long as I wanted to.
Sunday:
Slept as long as I wanted to, which was about 12:15. Respectable, yes mother? So I woke up, really needed to shower... which was unsuccessful once again. I thought I had the temperature right when it started to get reall really freaking hot. So I turned the cold water more, and yes, I'm sure it was the cold water, but it didn't do anything. So I turned it more and more and more until it finally started to get less scalding. But then it got cold. Anyway, unsuccessful.
I blogged for a little while and Martina, the baby in the house (2), played with balloons and colored. I took longer to blog because I played with her a bit. She finds my juggling abilities very impressive. I feel like many would not.
Lunch was at 2:30 and we planned on going to around 4 or 4:30. We left around 5:20. Arturo wanted to take me to the metro and show me the subway system that I would need to take for my meeting on Monday with the program people. It wasn't too hard and after we got to the University, we kept walking and he showed me Santa Lucia, some kind of old fort from .... a long time ago. Arturo climbed almost to the top and I went the rest of the way up to take some photos. We walked around a little with some cokes and decided we had had almost enough exercise for the day. To make sure I could find my way back, he made me lead. We got home safely and had once (on-seh. spanish for eleven), which is like tea time. We had once at eight. Some of Arturo's sisters were vistiting so we all had a cute chat.
Pretty uneventful rest of the night. We watched a secrets of magic show, had a dinner of left-overs and I skyped a little before bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment