Family Time

Sorry for the lack of updating lately, I was fortunate enough to have 3 sets of visitors to come to see me in Chile so I've been super busy since Christmas enjoying the summer here with friends and family. As you saw in earlier posts, one of my super bff's and her hubby came to visit me over their winter break. We brought in the New Year properly and then they made their way back to the States in time to start their respective second semesters.

A week after M and J left, the other M and J came down, my mom and step dad, that is. My step dad had bypass surgery in June so it was great that we were able to hike all the way to the top of Cerro San Cristobal...

We also took the tour and tasted some wine at Cousino Macul...

Then my Aunt Dawn and Uncle Tom came and we maximized the space in the casita...

Ita and Sole put together a delicious meal to welcome them...

And then the guitar playing and singing began...

Even Otto joined in...

The next day we climbed the other cerro, Cerro Santa Lucia...

The view from one cerro to the other...You can even still see a couple of snow capped mountains lingering in the back drop...

I feel very lucky that my friends and family were able to come all the way down here and share this part of my life with me, and in two weeks I'll be re-joining my aunt and uncle down in Punta Arenas for the next phase of the adventure!

Roomies

It had been a long while since I had lived with a roommate, and sharing a small space with someone again was a concern of mine in coming to Chile after having lived on my own for so long. When Ita told me that my roommate was a 22 year-old chemistry student from the Ukraine, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but in the last 4 months I have really come to love and appreciate my little S.
Those of us around the house are always telling her how funny she is and I don't think she understands why. She tells stories in Spanish with the same speed and enthusiasm that speaks Russian, and her insights are usually a combination of someone worldly, optimistic, and a little naive all rolled into one.
I love that when I come home from class at night she always asks me about my day, and when I reciprocate she tries to explain her chemistry formulas to me since she gets so excited about the work that she's doing. She talks about molecules and reactions and probably doesn't realize that I haven't studied anything chemistry related since my junior year of high school.
Most of all, I appreciate her sincerity. Nothing that we talk about feels like an effort to make small talk. She asks me about whether I miss my family or the USA and tells me that if I'm sad and I need to talk to anyone that I can talk to her. She inquires as to what language I will learn next (since she speaks 4) and to whether or not I have ever considered writing a book. (Not because of my tremendous writing skills!) The other morning in the kitchen she asked me "So, what did you dream about last night, Heather?"
Precious!

Noises in the Night

I'm lucky to live in a pretty peaceful neighborhood, all things considered. I think using the word "quiet" would be a stretch, but overall I'm really grateful to live where I do and know that when I come home that I'll be able to sleep. It's pretty sheltered back here from a lot of the typical noise that one might hear in a big city. In any new living situation, it takes some time to become accustomed to the little noises that makes a house its own. At home those noises were usually a result of something my cat was doing, but here those little noises are due to a number of things. Random car alarms sounding in the night, someone deciding to park out on the street at 4am with the radio blaring as loud as possible, something that sounds like dripping water but isn't, and many days very early in the morning, cats on the roof. None of these things are severe enough to keep me awake for any great length of time, but they do have me waking up more often. In fact, as I reach over to press the light button on my little travel alarm clock, my internal dialogue sounds a little like this: It's 3 am/I think I have to go to the bathroom/but it's cold if I get out of my bed/I'm too lazy to go all the way downstairs/my roommate's alarm is going to go off in 3 hours/I think I can make it 'til then...

This usually results in me getting out of bed anyway, and then sleeping for a few more hours until the alarm clock madness begins. First I hear her alarm, then my alarm, then usually my snooze, then my phone as a back up, then snooze again, etc. We have enough alarms in this place to wake up 10 people, but I'm extra paranoid lately since I overslept and was 15 minutes late to my Saturday class a few weeks ago and I have a new class 3 days a week that begins at 8am.

Last night the light switch in the kitchen stopped working, a common occurrence I've been told, but this resulted in Ita coming in at about 10pm with a big roll of packing tape and trying to tape it flat against the wall so it would stay off. We thought she was successful and went to bed as usual a little later. I heard some noises and hit the clock at 2am, and wouldn't you know, Ita was back downstairs working on the switch since evidently she had gotten up to take the dog out and seen the light back on in the middle of the night. I learned this morning that she had given up and just turned off the breaker, so when I went downstairs this morning there was no power at all anywhere. Luckily by 6:45 it's pretty light out now so I was able to see, but I didn't know where the breaker switch was so I just dragged the electric kettle upstairs to my bedroom and plug it so I could make my coffee.

By the time I got home from class, she already had an electrician here repairing the switch and she also showed me how to turn the power on/off should something like that happen again. I wanted to ask her about my eggs and yogurt and other perishables in the refrigerator, since obviously that is connected to the power source downstairs, but I'm not so good at cracking jokes in Spanish. :)
It's all pretty amusing to me, but I wonder why I've been so tired lately?

Mi Casa es Su Casa

Here are some pictures of "La Casita", as its owner affectionately refers to it. It's a small place, but very cozy, and let's face it, I'm in a big city now and most people don't live in giant spaces!

Here's a little "saludo" to 2 of the "Casita's" predecessors, Sara and Abby.  Thanks for recommending it to me and hopefully one of these days in the near future we'll all be sitting around the table here together telling stories with Ita about the many people who have lived here over the years...

The entryway

 Entry into the kitchen

The bathroom and tiny winding staircase

My bedroom...Big bed for tall girl makes me very happy!

The opposite shot of my bedroom

There is another bedroom upstairs right next to mine that my roommate S. occupies, but I didn't want to photograph her room without asking!

My First Yoga Class

For those of you that know me well, you know that I like to hit up the yoga classes 2-3 times a week.  It's become a necessary part of my life over the last 8 years or so and I was excited to continue with my practice in a new place in a different city.  I'd like to thank Emily for recommending YogaLuka, and the nice part about it is that it's fairly close to where I live, it's really cheap, and there are many classes to choose from since my teaching schedule is different everyday and will continue to change over the months ahead.  Right now I happen to have a few holes in the middle of the day, so it's the perfect opportunity to do something productive.
I didn't think I'd already be signed up for classes this quickly, but in the last week I have carried ridiculously heavy bags around airports and up and down stairs, slept in a hostel, tried to get accustomed to a new bed, walked everywhere, and stopped going to the chiropractor, which is something that I had been doing regularly for about 7 months. I'm just one of those people with a lot of aches and pains and I have to do what I can to take care of myself.
The class was a little different that what I had become accustomed to, but it's always a good thing to switch things up now and again anyways.  I can't say that I understood everything that the instructor said, but it wasn't too hard to sneak a peek around me to see what was going on.  I'm going back for a different intensity class on Saturday, so we'll see what happens then!  I also need to get my hands on my own yoga mat, so I can start my own little routine out on the sunny patio right outside the door of the casita.