So much has happened over the last couple of days that I have had a very difficult time deciding what to write about! Hopefully I'll get better at this as I spend more time here!
Last night, we went to our first discoteca (club) in Chile. Dancing is one of my favorites, so I was very excited! And it was definitely a good time, but a very new scene in many ways. One of the most obvious: I left early at 3:00 in the morning! When the college kids in America are leaving the clubs, the Chileans are only starting their night! After finishing off our drinks, we were then able to enter the dance floor. The Americans were the first ones to get on the dance floor and it seemed odd that no one else was joining us! But after a while, we left the floor and then the Latinos flooded the floor. They dance so much smoother than we do so they probably thought we were crazy while we were jumping around out there!
There was plenty that happened before we made it to last night, though! Thursday evening - my first full day in Arica - we went to el Centro which is like the main place here. If you know Downtown Iowa City, that's comparable to el Centro, but el Centro is much larger! While we were there, we me our primos (conversation partners from the University). Unfortunately, mine wasn't there, so I still haven't met him/her! Hopefully I will tonight when we have a party with the Gringas and our primos =) That night at el Centro was supposed to be much longer, but we had some problems getting our money exchanged, so we still didn't have any pesos to do much! We did grab "dinner" at 9:30 and I was so excited for a kebbab! I had one my very first night in Spain several years ago and it was fantastic. The ones here still taste good, but I prefer the Spanish kebbabs! However, there is still a lot of great food I've been able to eat here and I'm excited to try more!
For example, my mom took me and my little brother to a house restaurant on Thursday afternoon for lunch (at 2:00). There, we ordered two typical Chilean dishes to share and here's the greatest part: each meal included one large plate of the main dish, a salad and bread for the table - only three American dollars! Just a little more pricey than McDonald's but homemade =) This is my kind of country!
After our very long afternoon at el Centro on Friday, I came home for just a couple hours before all the families hosing Gringas met at one of the houses for "dinner." A little before we needed to leave, Mariano, a friend of my family, came to visit and I enjoyed meeting him! He is a friend of my host sister (who I haven't met - she is studying in Santiago) but he still comes to visit Marcela y Ian a veces y cuida para Ian cuando Marcela salga. Ahhh!! This is what happens...I find myself switching back into Spanish when I'm trying to used Enlgish! Translation: sometimes Mariano babysits for Ian when Marcela has different outtings and such. Probably the greatest encouragement while Mariano was here was to hear him and Marcela agree that I speak Spanish very well!
Let me tell you, I have not felt that to be the case. It's been three years since I've had significant practice or education in the language and every day I realize other vocabulary that I've lost and find myself conjugating incorrectly all the time! Marcela has been fantastic about speaking slowly and being patient when I don't understand her or vice versa. But I have just felt awful about how terrible my Spanish has become. So to have them tell me that I speak well was incredibly encouraging and I praise God that He has allowed me to maintain what I have over the last several years and I hope that I improve drastically after this trip!
I need to get going to meet up with our primos, so there will be more to come about my dinner with the host families, conversations with Marcela and other random facts about life in Chile!
Ciao =)
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