The Call to Chile: A Few More Days

Day Five- Today was pretty good. I went to my language school, but on the way to class my shoes started giving the back of my heel a blister so it was really painful to walk. After class I took the subway because my foot was hurting way too much to walk a mile back to the house. It was the first time I had taken the subway by myself. Once I got on I realized that I had no idea what the name of the subway stop I was supposed to get off’s name was. I just remember that it was the second stop. So I went with that and I was right, thankfully. I then hobbled back to the house to find a band-aid. When I got there Katie was already at the house waiting for me to go to the church. So I slapped on a band-aid and we started the two mile walk to church. I was really hungry and heard about this good pizza place so I stopped and got a pizza. It was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. The place looked a little shady and it was about as small as a bedroom. The bread was made that day and was about an inch to an inch and a half thick. It had fresh mozzarella and tomatoes on top of it, and ham hidden under the cheese. We continued on to church as I ate. VBS was almost over again but we helped clean up and played with the kids for a few minutes. Some people at the church gave us fresh apples and mandarin oranges which were delicious. We played a makeshift volleyball game with some of the guys and it was really fun. It gets dark at about 6:00 here because it’s their winter so we left the church around 5:30. When we got back to the house I took a shower in that tiny little shower again, I didn’t want to get out because it was so warm and it’s so cold everywhere else. Katie and I couldn’t figure out how to turn the heater on, because it’s just a little portable gas powered thing and we were scared of blowing up the house. There wasn’t really anything to do and we were both tired so we went to bed at like 8. It’s still killing me that I’m living out of a suitcase. I’m hoping next week I will actually be able to settle in. It’s making me so anxious.

Day Six- Today was pretty much the same as the last. I went to my language school and came back to the house to help Eli clean up a little bit. When Katie got home for school we ate lunch. A new staff member from the United States came today, his name is Brent. He bit his tongue so hard he couldn’t talk so they had to take him to the hospital. Not a good way to start off his trip, but he is here for 2 years though so I’m sure it’ll get better. We cleaned a whole lot because tonight some Chilean students came over to watch a movie. That was a blast! The students are so friendly even though we can’t really understand each other. They wanted me to ask them questions in English and then explain it to them. So that was fun, we watched the movie The Adjustment Bureau in English with Spanish subtitles which was fine by me. Then we played some game with dice in a cup that I have no idea what the name of it was. It was fun though. The students are really great. It was the latest Katie and I have stayed up since we got here, we went to bed at 1:30am! It was a really great day though.

Day Seven- Today was a blast. Katie and I woke up and went to the market which is about ½ a mile from our house and it’s there every Wednesday and Saturday. I bought a bunch of fruit that I can’t wait to eat, and it was all fresh and cheap. After the market we helped Eli move into her new room which I was thrilled about because now I can unpack my suitcase! Eli thinks I’m really strong because I moved her bed by myself. After that we ate lunch and waited for some friends to come over so we could hike Cerro San Cristóbal again, and this time make it all the way to the top. It was Katie, Mary (an exchange student we met from Virginia), Eli, and a Chilean student named Ruth who is really a cool person to be around. We had to walk to the hill before we could walk up it and that was about a mile walk. Climbing the hill was ridiculous. The whole climb had to have been at least a 45 degree angle the entire way up. It was worth it though. We made it to the Virgin Mary and the view of the city was phenomenal. You could see Santiago in every direction you looked! It was kind of crowded up there because it’s everyone’s vacation time here, their Winter break. It was ok though, it was so pretty! We stayed up there for about 30 minutes. It was getting dark though so we decided to start heading down the hill. The climb down seemed almost as hard as the climb up, it killed my knees. On the way home we decided to stop in this little store to grab some empanadas for dinner and I bought a coke to share with my friends. It was fun, we all ate dinner together and watched P.S I Love You. It was in Spanish, good thing I had already seen it. Most of the television shows here are in English and have Spanish subtitles, so I was surprised that P.S I Love You was in Spanish. Oh and I accidentally flushed a piece a toilet paper. You can’t do that here, woops. I just forgot for a split second and it was too late by then. Eli is now moving her clothes into her room so hopefully I can set my room up tomorrow. I’m ready for it to feel like home. I do love it here though. Oh and the alarm to our house just went off because Eli opened a window so the Police are coming. It's really funny, all three of us are cracking up. Good to know we are very safe here!!