La Jac Goes to South America.: Less than two months?!

And we´re at less than two months! I cannot think of anything to say about this that is not cliché.

The lastest from Valdivia: I survived the great quake of 2011 yesterday. Luckily it was actually just a city-wide drill, because our class didn´t hear the siren and carried on as usual for about 10 minutes before joining our classmates in the rainy "safe place". And the rain finally seems to have started up. It´s beautiful and my umbrella and boots are getting some good use. This is fortunately still novel to me. Also, there has also been a lot of protesting here lately. Mostly it´s been Patagonia Sin Represas (Patagonia Without Dams) stuff. The general debate: do we flood lots of land in the south to create a hydroelectric energy source for the country (/to sell to other countries)? The frustrated response to this has included lots of marches, burning tires (which, ironically, does not seem all that environmentally friendly), breaking out windows and throwing rocks. This has in turn resulted in that big truck thing with the giant water hose and sometimes tear gas. The last couple of days I haven´t heard or seen anything new.

Still just waking up happy every day here. Valentina (the youngest host sister) has been getting more and more hilarious with each passing day. I think that the reality is just that I can communicate with her better now. Whatever the reason, I really like her. We have our own jokes and have spent many a rainy night studying together on the couch, next to the fire. (she gets a little high-strung about homework, too). Telma the Grouch sits in between us, but always closer to Vale. My host parents are just as excited (that would be Rodolfo) and grounded (Marisol) as ever, and celebrated their 36th anniversary this week. Pao´s coming down from Santiago to visit this weekend, which I´m sure will be hilarious, as always.

But enough about them, let´s talk about me [again].

I registed for my classes for fall quarter back in Washington! Spanish Phonetics,ˈhɪr ˈaɪ ˈkəm. Classes are moving right along here. And English Club is really fun this semester. The little girls in particular have befriended me, and love to tell me stories about their grade school drama/ask me ridiculous questions, usually about Justin Bieber. I got to play a friend´s (familiarly out of tune) piano yesterday... and then they fed me sopaipillas. So nice to just sit in their kitchen watching Chilean gameshows and talking about things. This semester is busy. I´ve been making friends with the librarians and also the waiters in my preferred studying cafes. My free time is usually spent eating lúcuma ice cream (lúcuma = a fruit that tastes like CARAMEL) and watching Casablanca with amigos. Sometimes we go to cafes to play cards or to someone´s kitchen for culinary experiments. I´m still a bit of a novelty in my Chilean classes here, and never pass up an opportunity to embarrass myself.

Today I decided that think I have changed a little. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, I had to do a group project in one my my classes. Last week in class I understood the teacher to say that my group would be presenting today, Thursday. But I talked to two other girls in the group (separately), and realized I had misunderstood (nothing new), and that we were going to present next week. Today when I came to class, the professor was waiting for us to present. She. Was. Mad. I sighed. I SIGHED. I was frustrated, but not stressed. She said we´ll present next week, and that we´ll "get a bad grade." I was bummed, but not stressed. This did not ruin my morning. I spent that unexpected half hour of non-class time taking pictures. I don´t know if you´re understanding the significance of this. Anyone who has been around me previously when deadlines or grades are on the line knows that this is not characteristic of me. I still study too much but perhaps I´m slowly starting to get over my "freak-out-about-grades-and-also-about-things-out-of-my-control" illness, if you will.

However, on that note, I´m still going to go consider doing some homework.