Hey y'all.
So I only have one month left here and I cannot believe it. It is (and will be) very bittersweet, being that I miss you all terribly, but I like this country a lot. Hopefully some of you will return with me someday, there are some great mountains to climb :)
So I am a few days in to my Independent Study Project (ISP), and I am starting to like it. Honestly, there was quite a bit of panic the first few days when I found out my original topic did not exist, but I managed to fix that well enough. I set out wanting to study the decision making of the branches of government involved in health education of the general population, because in their public health system, they heavily emphasize prevention of disease. Interestingly enough, they are not making decisions based on epidemiological or statistical evidence, and there is no formal process for deciding which educational activities will receive funding. Not only is it a tax-dollar spending free-for-all, but there are multiple branches of the government doing to same job, and they barely know the other ones exist. Thus far I have come across five different branches of the government just in this tiny little city that are dealing with health education of the general populace (not even touching health ed in schools or the health education that the individual health offices do), and two of them I came across by mere luck and happenstance. And get this, two of them have the same name, are derivatives of the same branch of the Ministry of Health, do the same jobs, and never talk to each other! Moral of the story, despite not being able to work on the project I want to, I seem to have stumbled upon an interesting situation in and of itself, that no one was aware of before this. It seems like I have the ability to really change things and make their system more effective, if they want it to be (which I doubt). The sad part though, is that some of the teams I have been shadowing are under the impression I am here to study their social change model and bring it back to implement in the US (I promise my Spanish skills are not that bad that I told them that by accident). They are truly putting all their heart into their work, so I feel bad that when they read my report, they may not like what they see.
I have told Kristen and Jesse that the general kindness of Chileans and my panic over getting this project done have made me really ballsy. I have taken to walking into government offices and asking to speak with the person in charge, going to meetings in the evening with people I do not know, and walking up to people in the street to ask them what they are doing. The fact that they think Americans are so cool is definitely working to my advantage here, and I think that the general willingness to help people out who ask for it is going to be the thing I miss most about Chile when I get back to the US. Certainly you all, the people I love, are like that, but here it is a way of life.
In other news, I applied to five internships in DC for next semester, mostly working with providers of free healthcare to at-risk populations. I have not heard back from anyone yet, save an automatic response that they recieved my application. Prayers please! I'll keep you all posted on my progress.
I hope y'all are fully recovered from Sandy and are enjoying the snow :) Please update me on your lives when you get a chance, even though I am bad at doing that myself so I don't really deserve it :P
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
The Legend of the Payachatas
The legend of the Payachatas tells of two families in the time of the Incas, enemies because of a long fight over the ownership of the land. The Prince and the Princess of each tribe, guided by destiny, met and fell deeply in love. However, the hate between the two tribes made this love impossible, and the families tried to separate the two, appealing to magic to separate them. However, their love was too powerful, and these measures had no effect.
All of nature grieved for the separated lovers. The moon and the clouds cried, the wolves howled and torrential storms whirred in warning to the tribes, for the gods would punish such an error.
The families did not heed the warning of nature, and tried everything to break their love, but all of their efforts were in vain. In face of their failure, the families decided to sacrifice the prince and the princess, so they could never be together. One completely dark night, without a moon, the young lovers were killed.
The gods of the earth emptied all of their fury with torrential rain and crashing thunder which devastated the region. The floods destroyed the tribes, and they disappeared from the land. In their place appeared two beautiful lakes, Chungarรก and Cota-Cotani, where the prince and princess can be seen passing in their canoe, finally together. In honor of the young lovers, the earth gave them two tombs, the volcanoes Parinacota and Pomerape. Together they are the Payachatas, one the Prince and the other the Princess, together and in love for all of time.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Sobre la vida sencilla
Right now I am in the town of Putre, way back in the mountain desert of northeastern Chile. The town only has 700 people, and the community 1,400. This morning we visited the next largest town of Socoroma, home to 70 people, 11 of which are the most adorable children, who all study in the same room, with the same teacher, sharing desks. To continue their education past sixth grade (which is required by the state), they go live in dorms in Putre or Arica. The nearest health center is a half hour drive, and the nearest hospital two and a half. After we visited the kids and taught them how to brush their teeth with the toothbrushes we gave them, we walked around the town, looking at the houses and the terraced fields that surround it. I was talking to my friend Ammar, and he was marveling at the fact that this town must die out; young people cannot stay, and the old people will die quickly without emergency care. Ammar and others commented that "this is not a life." This struck me as one of the points where our western culture clashes with what we are trying to learn here. For the people of Socoroma, this is what they know, this is their life. I do not see a problem with living your life off the land, spending your time with the ones you love, and dying when it is your time, without being sustained on handfuls of pills or machines. These people live off what they can get from their land, spend their time with their families and their community, and die without painfully prolonging the process. Especially after this trip, being away from the people I care about, I can see the beauty in living just with what and who you need. It saddens me to see that the other people on my trip are unable to open their minds to the other cultures we are getting to know.
Do not worry, I am not going to throw away my life and come live in the back country of Chile. Nor am I saying that people should not do whatever they can to prolong their own lives. I am just saying that we are here to learn about health and other cultures, and for that we need to have an open mind. Our method of confronting these kinds of situations is to send them money or try to move them to the cities where there are steady jobs, but helping people who do not want to be helped is hurting them. If these people enjoy their lives, then who are we to say that it "is not a life"?
I will end with this. To whom much is given, much is expected. I am so lucky to have the life I do, to know the people I do, and to be here learning these lessons. I do not get to run off into the backwoods to live only for myself. I will take what I am learning and use it to make the world a better place to be, and hopefully to help build understanding between people like us and people like the Socoromans.
Do not worry, I am not going to throw away my life and come live in the back country of Chile. Nor am I saying that people should not do whatever they can to prolong their own lives. I am just saying that we are here to learn about health and other cultures, and for that we need to have an open mind. Our method of confronting these kinds of situations is to send them money or try to move them to the cities where there are steady jobs, but helping people who do not want to be helped is hurting them. If these people enjoy their lives, then who are we to say that it "is not a life"?
I will end with this. To whom much is given, much is expected. I am so lucky to have the life I do, to know the people I do, and to be here learning these lessons. I do not get to run off into the backwoods to live only for myself. I will take what I am learning and use it to make the world a better place to be, and hopefully to help build understanding between people like us and people like the Socoromans.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Im not putting what day it is so you can't get mad at me for how long its been since I wrote...
Hey y'all, I am so sorry it has been so long since I wrote. I have been traveling alot and very very busy, which is not a good excuse, but anyway...
Today you are going to get a rant about public healthcare. I just got back from visiting the public hospital here and it was terrifying. I think anyone who is designing or wants a publicized health care system needs to come to Chile and check out what they have got. They would realize that publicizing US healthcare would be a huge step back for our country. Also let me note that this hospital I visited was brand new, and it is the only public hospital for hundreds of miles of Chile.
I have never seen an ER waiting room so full, nor an ER so empty and under-equipped. The only reason I recognized their defibrillator was from watching old EMT training videos from the eighties. They had a tiny triage room, capacity to treat 5 minor emergencies at a time, and only 2 beds in a room the size of my bedroom to treat serious problems like a cardiac emergency or trauma. If someone in one of the areas for more minor problems has a heart attack, they have to be moved into this room so they can treat them, and if there are more than 3 people in critical condition at a time, then tough luck. A few weeks ago a similar hospital in Santiago had a serious back up in their waiting room, so that people were waiting for over 24 hours without care. In an EMERGENCY ROOM.
After that we went upstairs to see the rest of the hospital. We asked about 8 times to clarify, but we heard right the first time that there are no doctors doing rounds or even on the floor most of the time. They come through once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and the rest of the time, if there is any sort of emergency, they have to call in a doctor from the emergency room or the one doctor in the ICU.
Unfortunately, I have seen problems such as these in the rest of the system as well. In the health centers the health professionals are overworked and underpaid, there are far too few doctors and especially specialists, and they all work in tiny cubicles made out of parts of hallways. People wait months to be seen.
Though I think this may be the best that Chile can do as a recently developed and very economically unequal country, I know it would be a step back for America. I have studied our health system as well, and though I do not doubt that change is needed, I do not think this is the way to do it. Changing from what we have now to a system such as Chile's would be disempower people and lower the quality of care.
I hate getting into arguments about politics, but I had to write about this because I was honestly terrified to see this hospital today and to think that this could be in the future for me and my family. Please inform yourselves. Why would we follow in the footsteps of countries that are not successful with their public health systems? I know someone who almost died because she got mersa in the UK, and when she got to the waiting room of the ER she was told to take a number. It took them four days to figure out what the problem was. America is better than that, and there are better ways to fix our healthcare system. We should go through the laws and make sure we are protecting people from the insurance companies, instead of taking the quick way out and just publicizing everything.
I am sorry if this has offended anyone, but I hope you realize that it comes from a good place. Please inform yourselves, please vote, and please be proud of how different and special our country is and can continue to be.
Today you are going to get a rant about public healthcare. I just got back from visiting the public hospital here and it was terrifying. I think anyone who is designing or wants a publicized health care system needs to come to Chile and check out what they have got. They would realize that publicizing US healthcare would be a huge step back for our country. Also let me note that this hospital I visited was brand new, and it is the only public hospital for hundreds of miles of Chile.
I have never seen an ER waiting room so full, nor an ER so empty and under-equipped. The only reason I recognized their defibrillator was from watching old EMT training videos from the eighties. They had a tiny triage room, capacity to treat 5 minor emergencies at a time, and only 2 beds in a room the size of my bedroom to treat serious problems like a cardiac emergency or trauma. If someone in one of the areas for more minor problems has a heart attack, they have to be moved into this room so they can treat them, and if there are more than 3 people in critical condition at a time, then tough luck. A few weeks ago a similar hospital in Santiago had a serious back up in their waiting room, so that people were waiting for over 24 hours without care. In an EMERGENCY ROOM.
After that we went upstairs to see the rest of the hospital. We asked about 8 times to clarify, but we heard right the first time that there are no doctors doing rounds or even on the floor most of the time. They come through once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and the rest of the time, if there is any sort of emergency, they have to call in a doctor from the emergency room or the one doctor in the ICU.
Unfortunately, I have seen problems such as these in the rest of the system as well. In the health centers the health professionals are overworked and underpaid, there are far too few doctors and especially specialists, and they all work in tiny cubicles made out of parts of hallways. People wait months to be seen.
Though I think this may be the best that Chile can do as a recently developed and very economically unequal country, I know it would be a step back for America. I have studied our health system as well, and though I do not doubt that change is needed, I do not think this is the way to do it. Changing from what we have now to a system such as Chile's would be disempower people and lower the quality of care.
I hate getting into arguments about politics, but I had to write about this because I was honestly terrified to see this hospital today and to think that this could be in the future for me and my family. Please inform yourselves. Why would we follow in the footsteps of countries that are not successful with their public health systems? I know someone who almost died because she got mersa in the UK, and when she got to the waiting room of the ER she was told to take a number. It took them four days to figure out what the problem was. America is better than that, and there are better ways to fix our healthcare system. We should go through the laws and make sure we are protecting people from the insurance companies, instead of taking the quick way out and just publicizing everything.
I am sorry if this has offended anyone, but I hope you realize that it comes from a good place. Please inform yourselves, please vote, and please be proud of how different and special our country is and can continue to be.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
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!
PS: If you are interested in knowing when I post again, just enter your email in at the bottom of this page and you will get a notification each time I post a new entry.
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:
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!
PS: If you are interested in knowing when I post again, just enter your email in at the bottom of this page and you will get a notification each time I post a new entry.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Day 15
"Tengo habilidades modestas. Combino estas con un gran portiรณn de determinaciรณn, y me gusta tener รฉxito."
"I have modest abilities. I combine these with a good deal of determination, and I rather like to succeed."
~ Sir Edmund Hillary
^^My new motto for this trip. On Friday everyone in the program had individual meetings with the program director and the homestay coordinator. I told them that everything was going great, though Spanish is a struggle. I am strangely excited to start working with my tutor on Monday, because I know all I need is a little help with some of the things I can't teach myself, and my Spanish will improve fast. Rossana (our program coordinator) advised all the girls in my program to speak Spanish always, including when we are with each other, and reminded me that that is why I came here. If I go home and feel that I did not give learning Spanish my all, I will be mad at myself for the rest of my life. As she said, "This is it. You likely will not get another chance like this in your lifetime."
After that I went to talk to Aida, the homestay coordinator, who reminded me of what she told me during my first day breakdown: don't sweat it. Relax and enjoy. Seemingly contradictory pieces of advice, but it will just be a matter of working hard and keeping a balance.
For example, all of the awesome classes I have been taking outside of the program. Last night I had bachata, which is such a surprising workout, while being very difficult and very fun. It helps if you have a good partner, and mine was sweet, but I realized how terrible he was when he told the teacher that I was having trouble with one of the steps. When the teacher danced that section with me, it was ten times easier. He told my partner that he was not being a strong enough lead. I honestly could have known nothing of the dance, as long as the guy is good, the girl looks good. Pretty sweet deal.
Then this morning I surfed for the first time (if you could call it that). The waves here are huge, and it is difficult not to get pummeled by them when you are strapped to a large floating plank. It was honestly a blast, and super cheap ($16 for 2.5 hours, with board and wetsuit rental). I'll be going back next weekend :)
My other adventure was trying to party like a Chilean. The bars here don't open until 11 at the earliest, and the clubs not until 2am. But I was determined to try a pisco sour like my grandpa advised me, so I went out after dance class with the girls from my program. It ended up being pretty boring. I never got my pisco sour, and I ended up coming home at 2 (when the party was starting) because I knew my homestay mom was waiting up for me and I didn't want to be too tired for my surfing lesson in the morning. I am probably the only college student in the world who hates the feeling of being drunk, but the dancing sounds really fun and I feel like going to a discotheque is a fundamental part of Chilean culture. I guess I will have to try again another night :)
Tonight I am headed to the centro with my sister to walk around and maybe shop, then to a futbol (soccer) game, which I am hoping will be as crazy as the reputation is, and maybe after that my pisco sour? :) <3
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Day 8
Hey all. I hope everyone is doing well. Send me updates on your life please!
We have started classes! I have really high standards for classes and professors, and thus far I am not crazy about the lectures and such. Many of my classmates and I feel that the Spanish classes are not covering what we need them to cover (verb tenses) and are instead covering elementary gramatical concepts that we learned in elementary school. We are talking to our program coordinators, and I already asked for a tutor. I am having a lot of trouble with verb tenses, recognizing them when other people are talking and knowing which to use when, and since we are not doing enough of that in class, I figured I would get a tutor who I could boss around about what I want to learn. I came here to learn Spanish, and I damn sure am going to learn, if it kills me or my program coordinators. My Chilean mom is just as determined as I am, and spends lots of time talking to me and explaining things to me, but the only words she knows in English are "yes," "no," "okay," and "hi." It makes it difficult to go over complex verb tenses. But just you wait, I will come back having forgotten English, I'll be speaking Spanish so well!
I've also had some good chances to see first hand what the vocal Chilean male can be like. Men, some of them grossly old, have said things to us while we walked on the street and a lot of them whistle. It doesn't help that me and my friend are both very pale and very blonde. Yesterday I was sitting outside a cafe with a couple girls from my program (we finally found coffee that wasn't made from a powder!), and I spotted a guy around our age who was walking away from us, but kept turning his head around to stare at us, very obviously. Three minutes later, he is walking back toward us, still staring unabashedly. He kept passing every 3 minutes or so until I waved him over from 100 yards past us. I asked him some questions we were assigned for our homework about the history of the area, and then pretty much dismissed him, because he was obviously just going to stand there and continue to stare. It was pretty funny for all of us. There have been tons of less egregious instances of people just staring at us, especially when we are all together. there really are not many gringas here at all, I have seen none outside of my program, so we are pretty interesting. We have also taken to greeting the other girls from our group as gringas just because Chileans find it so funny.
Yesterday, my brain got so tired that I could not handle another word of Spanish. With perfect timing, my hermana brought me to her gym, and we did a spinning class and a pilates class. There is nothing for a tired brain like tiring out your body, and I didn't really need to understand what they were saying to me, I just had to follow everyone else. Plus, they played American music. My pilates instructor (a man) was a particular fan of Bruno Mars.
Anyway, I am doing well all around, working hard but doing fun stuff too. We signed up for salsa lessons and on Saturday I am taking surfing lessons with some of the other gringas, then in the evening we are going to a soccer game. I do miss the leaves turning colors, I love the changing of seasons and they don't really have seasons here.
We have started classes! I have really high standards for classes and professors, and thus far I am not crazy about the lectures and such. Many of my classmates and I feel that the Spanish classes are not covering what we need them to cover (verb tenses) and are instead covering elementary gramatical concepts that we learned in elementary school. We are talking to our program coordinators, and I already asked for a tutor. I am having a lot of trouble with verb tenses, recognizing them when other people are talking and knowing which to use when, and since we are not doing enough of that in class, I figured I would get a tutor who I could boss around about what I want to learn. I came here to learn Spanish, and I damn sure am going to learn, if it kills me or my program coordinators. My Chilean mom is just as determined as I am, and spends lots of time talking to me and explaining things to me, but the only words she knows in English are "yes," "no," "okay," and "hi." It makes it difficult to go over complex verb tenses. But just you wait, I will come back having forgotten English, I'll be speaking Spanish so well!
I've also had some good chances to see first hand what the vocal Chilean male can be like. Men, some of them grossly old, have said things to us while we walked on the street and a lot of them whistle. It doesn't help that me and my friend are both very pale and very blonde. Yesterday I was sitting outside a cafe with a couple girls from my program (we finally found coffee that wasn't made from a powder!), and I spotted a guy around our age who was walking away from us, but kept turning his head around to stare at us, very obviously. Three minutes later, he is walking back toward us, still staring unabashedly. He kept passing every 3 minutes or so until I waved him over from 100 yards past us. I asked him some questions we were assigned for our homework about the history of the area, and then pretty much dismissed him, because he was obviously just going to stand there and continue to stare. It was pretty funny for all of us. There have been tons of less egregious instances of people just staring at us, especially when we are all together. there really are not many gringas here at all, I have seen none outside of my program, so we are pretty interesting. We have also taken to greeting the other girls from our group as gringas just because Chileans find it so funny.
Yesterday, my brain got so tired that I could not handle another word of Spanish. With perfect timing, my hermana brought me to her gym, and we did a spinning class and a pilates class. There is nothing for a tired brain like tiring out your body, and I didn't really need to understand what they were saying to me, I just had to follow everyone else. Plus, they played American music. My pilates instructor (a man) was a particular fan of Bruno Mars.
Anyway, I am doing well all around, working hard but doing fun stuff too. We signed up for salsa lessons and on Saturday I am taking surfing lessons with some of the other gringas, then in the evening we are going to a soccer game. I do miss the leaves turning colors, I love the changing of seasons and they don't really have seasons here.
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