This morning I woke up fairly early to head to my host sister's track competition. Her name is Almendra and this is the first time I got to meet her which was really exciting. She is fun and very good at throwing a javelin so I wouldn't reccomend messing with her. She's kind of like Molly in that way.
Because her track meet was three hours away, we spent a lot of time in the car today. I'm fairly certain that this morning my host parents filled it up with diesel, which I found interesting. But then again I could be totally wrong, because the gas pump was in Spanish and I didn't exactly pop the hood to see if it was a diesel engine.
We drove one of Almendra's track coaches home today, which is how I think I accidentially signed up for the Institute of Rafael Aritzia Track Team. Her coach asked me what sports I played in New York and I told him I did track as well, but not throwing. Only long distance running and jumping. I tried my best to make it very clear that I am bad at all of the events I ever participated in when it comes to track but he just laughed and asked me to write my name down in his phone for later. We will see how that situation develops...
Total side note, but there are Chevy Spark's EVERYWHERE in Chile. I even saw a Lucy lookalike today which made my heart very happy. For those of you who don't know, Lucy is the name of my blue Chevy Spark from home. It makes sense that a lot of people drive them though because it seems to me that it is more common to have a smaller car in Chile.
During our travels, my host family taught me a lot of new words and phrases. I learned some new Chilean vocabulary too! We also talked about formal Spanish versus informal Spanish and what words I should use with friends and not with teachers at school. I think that Claudia is nervous I'm going to say something I shouldn't to the wrong person, which is a very valid fear. I'm less nervous about it because my general rule of thumb is, if I don't know what it means I'm not going to repeat it. And that goes for English and Spanish. Let's just all cross our fingers that I don't get myself into a pickle, okay?
Anyways, after we got home the track meet, there was still about an hour and a half until we all sat down for "once" (pronounced oon-say). This is basically Chilean dinner, but it's different because dinner isn't as big of a meal as in the United States. My understanding is that lunch is the big meal of the day, but don't quote me on that because I've only been in Chile for a little more than 24 hours and we haven't exactly been on a normal schedule.
During the free time between getting back to the house and dinner, I talked with Abuela. Or I tried to at least. She did a lot of talking, and I said a lot of "Si, si, si". I did catch though that she has traveled a lot throughout South America and that Claudia was acutally born in Venezuela. The rest of the family was busy helping Almendra pack for her own exchange year in Germany so Abuela and I just chilled and bonded over the dogs.
The inside dogs are named Augusto and Violet, and whenever I start to get really homesick and feel like I'm going to cry, I just think about Augusto peeing on the floor because Claudia says he does that sometimes.
Sorry, back on track now. Sometime during my conversation with Abuela, my host dad, Gonazalo, turned on a Youtube channel of this guy from Mexico who travels around a tries foods from different countries. I didn't catch a whole lot of it, but it did make me laugh when Abuela kept calling him a glutton in Spanish. She would say "Aaaah glutton, glutton. How is he not fat, that is so much food!?" I just smiled and laughed and said "I don't know"
When once came around, it was a full house because all of Almendra's brothers sat down with us to have one last meal with her. This was the first time I met Gonzalo (he's obviously named after my host dad but I'm not sure if he's a Jr. so just bear with me through the two Gonzalo's) and Isaac. Gonazalo is a Chilean police officer and is pretty quiet. Isaac is the youngest brother, with Almendra being the actual youngest, and is a lot like his mom. I enjoyed getting to know him and his girlfriend Sara during the meal.
Before I went to bed, Claudia pulled out the gifts that I gave the family from last night and I got to explain them all over again. I definately did a bad job with my Spanish then because I got excited and going too fast, but it's okay. The whole family was patient and corrected my grammar when necessary, which I appreciate very much.
Before I sign off, I would like to say two things.
#1 I miss home like crazy. I know this is normal, but that doesn't make it any less difficult. I'm just trying my best to immerse myself because that helps me not think about it and also to look at the homesickness as a privilege. Seriously, how lucky am I that I get to have so many wonderful things and people to miss?
#2 Please be patient with these blog posts. My grammar and sentence structure is terrible and I am very aware of that. But I am trying to be authentic and am also fighting with my brain to not spell words in Spanish. I find that if I avoid English during the day, my Spanish stays pretty secure. That being said though, it does take me a second to adjust when I sit down to write these posts at night. Maybe that's because I'm just tired. I should probably go to bed.
On that note, this New York girl gone rogue is going to get some sleep.
Buenas noches con mucho amor
Anna
No comments:
Post a Comment