maybe 63 degrees isn’t beach weather
i love coffee shops. i am exponentially more productive sitting with a black coffee at stella’s or bidwell perk than i ever would be at my own kitchen table. and the people watching is an added bonus. i’m currently curled up in a big comfy chair at starbucks. i know, i know. not the most cultured choice. but it’s also the only coffee shop in this city that doesn’t allow smoking. so the fact that i just spend over three dollars for a tall iced americano doesn’t even bother me.
so an update. last saturday was the second scheduled outing with my program. we went to a chocolate factory and consumed more chocolate before eleven in the morning than any one person should eat in a week. not that i’m complaining. the small family owned company is operated out of an old home turned production center, and is know for its exotically flavored chocolates. oregano and basil were my favorite that we tasted. we then continued on to pomaire, a small town famous for its artisanship. is that a word? i’m not sure. i seem to be losing my english faster than i’m learning spanish. regardless, we were given ample time to meander through the main street at of the town, stopping at the little shops selling everything from gnome piggy banks for beautiful pottery at disturbingly low prices. it actually didn’t make sense how little they were charging. from pomaire we went to isla negra, another of pablo neruda’s homes, and my favorite so far. it had a spectacular view of the ocean, and reminded me a lot of monterey. and the house itself was gorgeous, modeled after the inside of a boat, with entire rooms devoted to neruda’s eclectic and extensive collections. the man turned hoarding into an art. altogether a very successful day. and a welcomed escape from the city.
learning a language means becoming familiar with the infinite number of interactions of the language. learning the vocabulary and cultural aspects of each situation. having a conversation with a professor after class has different requirements than trying to buy a ticket from a bus company. ordering a coffee is not the same as buying a loofah from the drugstore. (there isn’t really a spanish equivalent for that one). and dinner time conversation has nothing to do with a classroom discussion. and small talk? so so difficult for me. successfully learning a language means inserting yourself into as many as these different interactions as possible. monday’s hair cut definitely falls under this category. needless to say, there were more hand gestures used than words when trying to establish what exactly i wanted. and in the end, i put my trust, and my hair, into the hands with the scissors and waited to see what exactly would be the result.
for some reason i’ve been under the impression that hand is a masculine noun. it is most definitely not. why no one has had the decency to correct me as i’ve daily misused el mano for nearly two months is a mystery to me. and water. el agua? la agua? no sé. i asked my host dad and even he doesn’t know.
wednesday i went to the movies. chile has done good things with the concept of el cine. first off, their popcorn is sweet. like kettle corn, but better. and unlike stingy americans, they stuff the bag with as much palomitas as possible. secondly, the seats are leather. high class. thirdly, every wednesday, tickets for all the showings are less than four american dollars. also, if you are a fan of romcoms, crazy stupid love is a winner. and one day, ryan gosling is going to wake up and realize that i am the love of his life. i will patiently wait for this day.
i went to the beach. it was too cold to go to the beach.
i’ve been sick the last couple days. which means that the state of my stomach has been the most popular topic of discussion at meals. all three members of my family separately joked that i’m pregnant. my dad thinks i’ve been sneaking sweets outside of the house to the point that i’ve made myself ill. my mom believes i might have a newly appearing dairy intolerance. i suggested a flu bug, but that was quickly considered highly improbable. much more likely that i uncontrollably eat cookies. or i’m pregnant.
in the past few days, intensified by the fact that i was sickly, i found myself not so pleased with chile. all of it. i found a reason to dislike every aspect of chilean culture, chilean language, chilean everything. the epitome of culture shock. i’ll spare you the details, but will say that there were some instances that i found myself angry at the most ridiculously small things. like birds. and street lights. not my proudest moments.
but guess what? God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Genesis 1:31.
god created chile. god knows spanish. he created spanish. and he created this culture, this country and these people. and i get to see and touch, and taste, and hear another aspect of his creation. what an amazing gift. my prayer for this week is to see just in part the way that god sees. that when something distinctively chilean is rubbing me the wrong way, i’ll stop and remember, and try to see through the eyes of the Creator.
pomaire
celebrated poet and pack rat
not too shabby pablo
“Living a full and overflowing life does not rest in bodily health, in circumstances, nor even in seeing God’s work succeed, but in perfect understanding of God, and in the same fellowship and oneness with Him that Jesus himself enjoyed.” —- Oswald Chambers
