Settling In

It's hard to believe that I haven't even been in Chile for a week yet.  It's so different than the life that I was living that sometimes I wake up in the morning and have to talk myself through what it is I supposed to do that day!  I was so accustomed to my teaching schedule that required me to do the exact same thing at the exact same time everyday that I'm still getting used to having a different schedule each day and also working at night.  I used to be able to jump in my car 5 minutes before I needed to be at work, and now I wake up and try to calculate how long it will take me to get to where I need to go based on how far the walk is, the time of day, and how busy the metro will be.  At least I'm getting used to doing all of this from the comfort of the casita  (will post some pictures of that another time).  If you want to see pictures of the hostel that we were staying in and of our weekend festivities, then check out Struan and Anna's blog.  They are 2 lovely teachers from England that I met who will also be here teaching in Santiago all year.
Now, I am waiting for Ita to show me where the grocery store is so I can go and buy myself some food, but thankfully in the meantime, she has served me a few delicious things that look like this.
 


The best part is that there are two vegetarians around already so everything that she makes is already half meatless. Let's face it, no one wants to be the only one picking out meat or asking for special things, so it is great to have delicious bean soups and things like this prepared already!  Soups like this also help to fight the cold, which has pretty much returned since that beautifully warm day that we had on Saturday.  I realized today that this is the first time I have ever left Chicago to come to colder temperatures (I mean, why would I do that anyways?) but it does take a bit of getting used to, the mittens coming out for the walk home after class and all.  And, for those of you who don't know, the reason why it's so cold is because there is no heat, so Chicagoans, imagine the month of April with no central heat.  This leads me to my next picture, my "estufa" which I light in my room at night.

Yes, we're talking matches, pilot light, gas and all!  But trust me, without this thing I'd be walking around with 3 layers and a winter coat.  In fact, my feet are pretty cold just sitting here right now, even with my shoes and socks on. I really didn't believe that I'd be cold with temps that say highs in the 60's, but trust me, I am!