Daily life

Wow, it's been awhile! I haven't really had too much to say because my life has been a little fome (boring, as the Chileans say) lately. After I got my classes finalized, I had a lot of free time and not much to do with it. I'll try to summarize the more interesting parts of my last two weeks.

We've gone on two more trips as a Tufts group. First, we went to Pomaire, an artesan town about an hour outside of Santiago. There, we ate an unbelievably delicious breakfast at the house of a very nice family who show gringos around Pomaire. They live in a huge, gorgeous house that the dad of the family built himself. The family is a mother, father, daughter, and brother. It was the daughter to gave us the tour of the village. She started by telling us a little about the history of the town, and then took us to see how the town's renowned ceramics are made. We got to see how they process and refine clay. Then we watched a guy make 5 or 6 gorgeous ceramic pots in less than 5 minutes. He then helped each of us attempt to use the pottery wheel ourselves. It's so much harder than it looks! Some of us where better than others, but let me just say I have absolutely no future as any kind of artesan. After failing at the pottery wheel, we were taken to another ceramics making shop. They use a manual wheel to make incredibly large pots and vases. A very nice woman taught us how to make a few different animal sculptures out of clay. Again, my lack of faith in my artistic ability was fully justified. I made a mishapen frog, a pig whose legs could barely support the giant head i gave it, and a turtle whos neck had some serious issues adhering to its body. After our (or rather my) failed attempts at ceramics, we were rewarded with a second incredibly delicious meal at the same house. Pomaire is known for its giant empanadas, it's pastel de choclo (a casserole-like meal made with chicken, onions, and lots of corn), and it's casuela (a delicious stew-like soup that contains huge chunks of meat and potato). After our lunch there, I can easily see why they brag so much about their food. After lunch we got to wander around the town a little and souvenir shop. It was a very nice day at a really pretty, interesting place.

Our second Tufts excursion was yesterday. We went skiing in the Andes. Well, most people went skiing. My friend and I who have knee problems opted to sit in the warm lodge and knit most of the day. I had a great time! We got to watch the rest of our group take a skiing lesson and then brave the mountain on their own. I was surprised at how quickly everyone picked it up! Aside from some minor spills, that were mostly the fault of the t-bar lift that brought people up the mountain (for non-skiers like me, a t-bar lift is something like a chair lift but instead of sitting in a chair, you kind of hook yourself on to a mechanism that tows you up the hill), everyone did very well. The mountain was kind of freezing and unfortunately the ski package we had mandated that we eat our included lunch outside. But aside from some minor frostbite while eating, the day was fantastic. It was very relaxing to sit and knit next to a fire while looking out over the snow covered Andes.

Besides those trips, I've just been generally adjusting to my new life here. I've gotten much better at public transportation and I'm finding short cuts to the different places I have to go. I'm still waiting for my internship to really start. I had an interview with a group called Foro Salud, which helps educate women about everything from using a computer to sex ed. It seems like a really great organization, and I'd love to work with them. I would be teaching a computer class once a week. I'm still waiting to hear back from my dream internship, with an organization called Cintras. It offers medical and psychological care to survivors of torture and it educates the general public about what happened to these victims. The woman who interviews students was sick, but I'll hopefully be hearing from her sometime early this week. If possible, I'd love to work at both organizations. I'm very interested in the work they both do and I'd love to be a part of both.

Once my internship starts, life will seem a little more real here. I can't believe I've already been here a little over a month now. I haven't done a ton, which I feel bad about. I feel like since I'm here, I should be getting absolutely everything out of the experience that I can. But the internship will definitely help with that. It'll give me a chance to learn, practice spanish, and it'll give my days some very needed structure. When I have a real schedule I'll be able to really appreciate everything I'm doing, and it'll be easier to plan set times to go on excursions to really get to know Santiago.

That's about it for now. I'll get better about updating this thing now that I've figured out my life a little more. Hopefully the internship gets sorted out quickly so I'll have lots of interesting things to be saying and learning!