Day 21

So I know it has been forever since I wrote, but my excuse is that I have been really busy! Plus, it is difficult to write in English to y'all and then go back to speaking Spanish. More than once I have said things to my host family in English without even realizing it. It is especially difficult when my host sister listens to Adele and all the music on the radio is in English. However, yesterday morning I was thinking pretty well in Spanish, so I covered my ears and turned off the music when my sister put on her Adele.

This past week was not boring, but rather uneventful. I went to class, did a lot of homework, and hung out with my host family and the girls from my program. On Wednesday we went to visit Teleton, an organization in Chile and other South American countries that provides free therapy to children with disabilities. The part that really grabbed me (beside the adorable children) is that every year all of Chile comes together for 30 hours and raises money for Teleton. That is the only thing that is on TV, everything you buy comes with a donation, and little kids come around collecting change. It is at the end of November, so I am really excited to see that happen in Chile, if only to study it for future reference ;). While there, I volunteered to try out this really awesome machine that teaches kids to walk. It totally supports your weight, and then moves your legs for you in the correct way. I looked like Ironman, and learned that I apparently walk like an idiot.

Not much else exciting happened during the week, really we were all just revving up for Fiestas Patrias this past weekend.

Technically yesterday was Fiestas Patrias, the Chilean equivalent of Independence Day, except they celebrate for 5 days, and eat just has much unhealthy food. Its been great! I went to the beach three times, ate empanadas and a disgusting amount of meat, went for a bike ride with my sister and my sort-of-sister Connie, and discovered pebre, which is like a cross between pico de gallo and hot sauce. I love it, I have been putting it on everything. I told my host mom that she has to teach me how to make it so I can eat it every day for the rest of my life.Yesterday we went to a parade and watched literally thousands of military march pas,t not in dress uniforms, but fully ready for battle, machine guns and all. Knowing Chile's history of military coup, I would say it was a little more than terrifying. In fact, Peru, Bolivia and Chile are still in conflict (albeit political right now) over the valuable coastline. Its ok though, my host mom told me that if Chile and Peru go to war while I am here in Peru I am American, and then if Chile wins I am Chilean.

On Monday night my friends and I went to this lovely outdoor party where everyone was dancing the cueca, drinking wine, and chatting. The cueca is the traditional dance of Chile, and everyone learns it from when they are really really young. It mimics the courting movements of a chicken and a rooster, but it is actually way prettier than that sounds. In fact, I pretty much sat there and watched them do the same minute-and-a-half long dance over and over again for two hours and never got bored. A few guys tried to teach us some, here is my attempt:

While there I also got to try a terremoto, which is a special kind of wine with pineapple ice cream. Its like an alcoholic root beer float. It was great, but not as great as the pisco sour :)

Speaking of terremotos, I thought I was in my first earthquake in the early hours of Saturday morning. I woke up to the glass in my window shaking. Just to comfort all my loved ones at home that I have good survival instincts, I looked around saw that nothing was falling, and then went back to sleep. In the morning, I compared notes with my friend Chelsea to realize that we both had the same dream that we were in an earthquake. However, we were informed by real Chileans that it was not even an earthquake, just "temblores" (tremors) and that we better get used to them cause they happen all the time.

So I am now in Tacna, Peru, and I am super excited not only because Peruvian accents are way easier to understand, but because we are going to do some rural home visits and participate in a new mother education program on nutrition. I promise I will write sooner than I did last time to tell you all about it. I miss you all from home a lot, keep sending me prayers, love, and life updates please!

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