So, as my amiga Anna Chapin said to me in a recent email from DC, "From one foodie to another, you know the food is importante." With all the fresh produce and interesting concoctions here, it's totally foreseeable that this blog will turn into more of an eating log.
I love to eat. However, I'm not really down with people pushing food that I may or may not want on me. Some of the other students are experiencing really overbearing host senoras who don't understand why they can't eat 4 servings of heavy meat twice a day. A little anecdote: Yesterday, I was dining at my friend Emma's casa with her familia for Sunday lunch (which is actually more like a big dinner). Having heard about my non-meat tendencies (and being confused for a while I guess... no carne?), her senora had made me an entire spinach and cheese lasagna to go alone with the meat one for the rest of the family. Who else remembers those old Stoffer's Lasagna commercials with the parents and the two twin blond girls and some random guy friend of the girls who are joyously devouring their SUPERSIZE portions of Stoffers? Yesterday's lunch at Emmas was like this commercial: Latino style. It was me, Emma's Senora y Senor and their 30 year old son who lives at home (totally normal...) and his girlfriend Carolina. Before lunch, Emma, el Senor, and I talked politics over some Pisco (fruity Chilean liquor again!) and peanuts. At the table, everyone was served a heaping square of lasagna and after I finished mine (quite a feat since I'm not the biggest fan of lasagna..), I rejected a second helping only to be told that I eat like a "pajarito" (small bird). Next came the desert bowls with some sort of icecream cake with cookies and long chocolate sticks. I came home after lunch and declared to Cecilia that I could never eat again.
I feel super comfortable (the senoras here love to add "super" as a prefix for all spanish words) in my casa with Cecilia. She's so chill and let's me eat whenever I want and doesn't get offended when I don't want to eat 6 servings of her food. In fact, last night after that lasagna ordeal I could only handle eating melon for dinner and she thought that was fine, even funny. The only weird thing she likes to comment on is when I eat fruits and vegetables in the same meal (she outright rejected the idea of putting small pieces of peach in her salad).
Cecilia and I have already had several long discussions about health care, politics, volcanoes, alcohol consumption, public transporation, etc. She saw me reading an Isabel Allende book and told me to be cautious about believing what I was reading because Allende hasn't lived in Chilean culture for quite a while. She seemed to feel uncomfortable being judged by someone who up and moved to California and now just prides herself on being a famous Chilean author. Makes sense to me. She also had some pretty decent things to say about Pinochet and wanted to make sure I understood that his good intentions and his successes. Michelle Bachelet, while a leader of social movements, has apparently screwed the bus system in Santiago, and this seems to be the only thing Chileans have to say good or bad about her.
Orientation started today. I'm actually understanding much more than I thought, and let's all pray that by the time I return to the U.S. I can actually speak in legit spanish. Who knows. We have about a week and a half more of orientation before starting classes (not with Chilean students, but at least they'll be at the school where our classes are) and going to Valparaiso next Thursday! Hooray. Okay, that's all for now... maybe next time I'll talk more about school? Probably not...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Bienvenidos!
At long last, estoy en Chile! Bienvenidos a mi BLOG. I probably won't be updating frequently, because I'd rather keep you wondering for a while about my exciting life here ... and also, I'm rather lazy.
First off, don't be put off by the title. Lacking creativity, I thought back to a conversation that my mom and I had about a week ago. She's been telling me that she wants to learn Spanish for her visit here in April; however, when I tried to explain some basic vocab/verb tenses, she became immediately exasperated and declared that the only phase she would need to know is "Where is the bathroom?" Reflecting on this convo and the amount of fruit in this country that will undoubtedly exacerbate my already frequent need to go to the "pipi room" (as it says on the door to my bathroom here at mi casa in chile), I figured this title was a solid one. Sorry if that was an overshare... I'll now move on to my arrival in South America!
The flight here was fairly uneventful. Aside from having to fight off some Canadian airport authorities who attempted to tell Emma and me that we had missed our plane (it didn't leave for another 45 minutes), I pretty much remember nothing about the 10 hour ride from Toronto to Santiago. I was too anxious to watch any of the movies that were offered on my personal tv, so I just played sudoku, tried unsuccessfully to find a comfortable position for resting, and finally succumbed to two hot meals provided (although no peanuts?).
After arriving in Santiago and waiting for about an hour and a half to get through immigration and customs (I had to throw out my juice box and my Cinnamon Kashi... damn), 14 of us students from American were greeted by our host familias. While some people made giant spectacles and showcased signs with their students' names, Senora Cecilia plucked me out of the crowd immediately after recognizing me from the picture she had received. It was clear she meant business. I also had a slight interaction with my friend Laura Kate's former host mama (from last spring) who had remembered my name from some of LK's stories and was super excited to see that i truly existed ... she told me to call her!
I can already tell Cecilia is going to be awesome. She's passionate about cooking, has a deaf dog named Coca, and has huge bags of oranges from (get this...) her sister's fruit farm! That stands out as the most exciting piece of information I've learned about her so far. She lives in la Reina, outside of central Santiago, in a cute little house with three bedrooms that is surrounded by shrubs and flowers. The backyard, which I've yet to explore sufficiently, has a patio area and a small shack where she apparently makes pottery? (more details coming on that I hope). Also, she's probably whiter and definitely blonder than I am. She has three grown sons- one, who is a doctor in Santiago, is currently traveling in the South of Chile on a moto. However, when I said, "Como Che?" after she told me that, she had zero idea what I was talking about. Oh well. Apparently, another AU student who is arriving tomorrow will be living in the house next door (really random since most people are in homestays in a separate suburb all together, but seemingly convenient for taxis assuming we can become amigas).
The neighborhood looks very peaceful for walking/running (which I hope to explore tomorrow), but is also right off a main road with restaurants and JUMBO (the biggest grocery/everything else store I've ever seen in my life)... picture your local Super Walmart and multiply by 50. We stopped in and within 5 minutes, I had already taken money out of an ATM, bought a phone card, and added money to the BIP metro card that Cecilia gave me. She also gave me a cell phone... what a classy lady. After selecting some grapefruits and Multigrain Cheerios, she escorted me down the wine aisle where we were offered samples of mango liquor! I guess this is the equivalent to the Whole Foods cheese samples I live off of in DC? When we got back home, I had the most delicious honeydew melon I've ever tasted. Tomorrow I have no idea what I'll be doing, but I have a feeling I might end up back at JUMBO to look around some more! Orientation starts Monday, but this weekend is a mystery, so you better keep reading!
Also, you should...
email me @ juuliemunro@gmail.com
skype me! ID: juuliem
Send me mail! Address: Julie Munro / Trocos Viejos 2292, La Reina / Santiago, Chile
First off, don't be put off by the title. Lacking creativity, I thought back to a conversation that my mom and I had about a week ago. She's been telling me that she wants to learn Spanish for her visit here in April; however, when I tried to explain some basic vocab/verb tenses, she became immediately exasperated and declared that the only phase she would need to know is "Where is the bathroom?" Reflecting on this convo and the amount of fruit in this country that will undoubtedly exacerbate my already frequent need to go to the "pipi room" (as it says on the door to my bathroom here at mi casa in chile), I figured this title was a solid one. Sorry if that was an overshare... I'll now move on to my arrival in South America!
The flight here was fairly uneventful. Aside from having to fight off some Canadian airport authorities who attempted to tell Emma and me that we had missed our plane (it didn't leave for another 45 minutes), I pretty much remember nothing about the 10 hour ride from Toronto to Santiago. I was too anxious to watch any of the movies that were offered on my personal tv, so I just played sudoku, tried unsuccessfully to find a comfortable position for resting, and finally succumbed to two hot meals provided (although no peanuts?).
After arriving in Santiago and waiting for about an hour and a half to get through immigration and customs (I had to throw out my juice box and my Cinnamon Kashi... damn), 14 of us students from American were greeted by our host familias. While some people made giant spectacles and showcased signs with their students' names, Senora Cecilia plucked me out of the crowd immediately after recognizing me from the picture she had received. It was clear she meant business. I also had a slight interaction with my friend Laura Kate's former host mama (from last spring) who had remembered my name from some of LK's stories and was super excited to see that i truly existed ... she told me to call her!
I can already tell Cecilia is going to be awesome. She's passionate about cooking, has a deaf dog named Coca, and has huge bags of oranges from (get this...) her sister's fruit farm! That stands out as the most exciting piece of information I've learned about her so far. She lives in la Reina, outside of central Santiago, in a cute little house with three bedrooms that is surrounded by shrubs and flowers. The backyard, which I've yet to explore sufficiently, has a patio area and a small shack where she apparently makes pottery? (more details coming on that I hope). Also, she's probably whiter and definitely blonder than I am. She has three grown sons- one, who is a doctor in Santiago, is currently traveling in the South of Chile on a moto. However, when I said, "Como Che?" after she told me that, she had zero idea what I was talking about. Oh well. Apparently, another AU student who is arriving tomorrow will be living in the house next door (really random since most people are in homestays in a separate suburb all together, but seemingly convenient for taxis assuming we can become amigas).
The neighborhood looks very peaceful for walking/running (which I hope to explore tomorrow), but is also right off a main road with restaurants and JUMBO (the biggest grocery/everything else store I've ever seen in my life)... picture your local Super Walmart and multiply by 50. We stopped in and within 5 minutes, I had already taken money out of an ATM, bought a phone card, and added money to the BIP metro card that Cecilia gave me. She also gave me a cell phone... what a classy lady. After selecting some grapefruits and Multigrain Cheerios, she escorted me down the wine aisle where we were offered samples of mango liquor! I guess this is the equivalent to the Whole Foods cheese samples I live off of in DC? When we got back home, I had the most delicious honeydew melon I've ever tasted. Tomorrow I have no idea what I'll be doing, but I have a feeling I might end up back at JUMBO to look around some more! Orientation starts Monday, but this weekend is a mystery, so you better keep reading!
Also, you should...
email me @ juuliemunro@gmail.com
skype me! ID: juuliem
Send me mail! Address: Julie Munro / Trocos Viejos 2292, La Reina / Santiago, Chile
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