¡Estoy en Santiago, y me voy a la parcela!

I'm sorry I've not posted yet - I'm sure you've all been sitting on the edges of your seats to hear that I'm doing well. I left DFW Monday evening for Atlanta, sat there an hour or more, and arrived in Santiago around 9:30am on Tuesday the 11th, Chilean time. My flight went fine. I slept some (I did take my uncle Freddy's advice and tuned to a classical station, but it's not incredibly comfy, so it was spotty sleep - about 5-6 hours, though), watched a part of a rather stupid but funny movie Without a Paddle, and listened to parts of the Garden State soundtrack on one of the stations on the plane, which I like and listened to even though I've heard it many, many times through over the break - my sister Britni got it and has been obsessed. Anyway - sat next to a Swiss guy who's a carpenter taking a 4 month break to travel in South America, and behind a girl from Boston who's visiting some friends she knows from grad. school. At the airport, I was trying to figure out who was Chilean and who wasn't. These were pretty obviously not from Chile - both blondes, although I did have to ask the Swiss, because you never know. The airport was fine - definitely warmer, and I went out the wrong exit, so it took me a few minutes to find Shana, the director of the workshop who's also living here at the group home while I'm here. From the airport, we went to the workshop, where we "meet and greet"ed, and I watched and then joined the dancing that the participants at the workshop were doing. In case I've not told some of you what I'm doing right now, it's a Hendrix-Lilly service fellowship, and I'm working with adults with developmental disabilities. My primary job is going to be caregiver for the two that live at the group home (Adriana and Alain, which is pronounced like Allen). They go to a "sheltered workshop" called La Esperanza every day during the week to do various activities. There are two other participants (Angelica and Edith) in the summer program right now, as well. When I arrived, they were dancing, so I watched for awhile, and then joined. This was very fun. The leader Christian was very enthusiastic and supportive. Mainly, he would show a certain move, and the rest would do the same - in a circle, in a line, in pairs, etc. There was also a time for each person to do a coreographed dance, which was very neat - Alain is especially expressive when he dances. I had my first experience of Chilean lip-pointing - I thought Angelica was just being cute and making like a kiss in the air, but it didn't mean "I like you", it meant "what time is it?" - she was pointing at the clock on the wall - "¡ay, son las doce!" Anyway - came to the hogar (home), put away bags, changed, and went back to the workshop for lunch, where we had "casuela", a traditional Chilean dish, with a piece of chicken, a potato, and a piece of pumpkin in a chicken broth with rice and french-cut green beans. There was also choclo (corn on the cob), a salad of lettuce and cucumber, and a peach juice/tea that had a foam at the top.
After a bit at the workshop, a tio (as everyone is generally called - tia, tio) came to take us to the house. Adriana had a necklace, bracelet, and paintings for me, and I gave her my gift of a jumbo Texas pencil (Alain was asleep at the time, so I gave him his today with the other participants). We made jewelry a little while, and then took naps - mine lasting 3 hours! Then had "once" (a small dinner in the evening), and Paulina came by to visit and we went out for a drive through parts of Ñuñoa (where I'm living), Providencia (where Paulina lives), and Las Condes (another "comuna" nearby), saw where she works, her old apartment, went up to her new apartment for awhile to meet her roommate, bring up a mattress she's borrowing from a friend, and have a cigarette while watching the news (which I'll have to get used to - even though lots of people smoke at Hendrix and other places of course, I've not been in an indoor place where people smoke in quite awhile). And, then we went out to a place called Bravissimo, which has all types of ice cream, pastries, and some sandwiches and salads. I had a pineapple milkshake, and Paulina a strawberry (frutilla in Chile, not fresa) and ice cream thing, along with a cake with peaches in it, and maybe dulce de leche in the middle. It was nice to see Paulina again (Laura - I got her books to her, but I ended up not bringing the shoes or the Pooh notebook), and she gave me some tips, etc. for going around in Santiago. We stayed out fairly late, and my mom called her cell while we were out, since I hadn't been able to reach her yet during the day. Later last night, we were finally able to talk, but it took awhile. Shana also connected her computer to the internet here last night, so I was able to check some e-mail. I'm not able to send messages from my Hendrix account at the moment, but I think it will work fine when I can hook mine up to the internet (the connection wasn't working with mine last night yet). Shana's been living here, I believe, since the end of November, when the family who was here moved out, so it's still kind of make-shift for her as well, since she still has her apartment and everything.
Today, I slept till 12pm, took a shower finally, went to the workshop with Shana for lunch - we had "humitas", which are a tamale-like thing, and some fresh tomatoes. Good, I thought, but Shana thinks they can be much better - with more of a kick. We added a little "aji pebre" (the name on the bottle of what we would call "salsa"). It was very filling! Oh - another note to Freddy - last night, I had agua con gas - I wasn't the one ordering, though, and it was fine. Oh - that reminds me - I am drinking the water here. Shana said she never had any problems here, and most Americans don't - Paulina warned me because she said she'd heard that Americans have problems with the water here, but I told her I'd been drinking it all day and hadn't had a problem. So, I went ahead and drank it from her apartment and from the restaurant as well. Today, the participants and other staff went to someone's house to swim, (ay - dios mio - I just realized that I actually forgot my bathing suit - how could I do that?! - oh well, I'll add that to my shopping list) and came back in the afternoon. Before they arrived, I saw the rest of the workshop which I hadn't seen yet - lots of the upstairs is taken over with dried lavendar. I gave the rest of the participants my extravagant gifts of jumbo pencils, as well as some "Texas gold" (candy) I got at a shop in Bridgeport with some other Texas things - a stained glass Texas flag and a bluebonnet keychain for the workshop, which I explained a little bit. They were very thankful, of course.
This evening has been fairly uneventful - Marisol, a lady who comes to clean while the other lady Georgie is on vacation, came this afternoon, and Shana was at the workshop and running errands most of the evening, so I was kind of "in charge". It's very late right now, so I should get to bed. I was able to put away all my stuff this evening - I brought so very little with me! Amanda, be proud! So far, I think I've lost half of my traveler's checks and left my bathing suit at home, so not too bad. Oh, today at the workshop, Shana gave me some books to read that have influenced her in her thinking about disabilities, etc., and we looked at the calendar for the coming days, weeks, and months. Oh yeah - another thing - my Spanish is que terrible - no estoy entendiendo todo, but I will undoubtedly improve bit by bit each day. I may try and sneak some Spanish in here, as I just did. Marisol and I talked a little, and she would occasionally ask me if I understood her, and I'd have to ask "¿Como?", but I can honestly say that I could understand some but not all. Paulina told me not to worry, because Adriana is harder to understand anyway (oh, if I could only put an audio clip on here - her voice is so sweet). Alain doesn't talk much, so understanding his speech is not so much a problem, but hopefully we can start to talk more.
Ok - I really need to get to bed, but one more thing. We're going out to a "parcela" (cabin) that Shana looks after near Valparaiso in the morning, and may stay through Sunday. All I know is it's near a river and mountains, and we're taking games, food, and clothes. There aren't enough beds for all 8 of us, so some will sleep on the floor, and maybe in tents outside - I'm not sure. I'm taking my camera, and I hope to be able to post some pictures when we get back. I've taken a few pictures already, but I'm not far enough into the computer hooking-up at this point to post them as of yet.
Another thing - I'm kind of adapting to no a/c in the summer - with a breeze it's nice, and it cools off quite a bit at night. We keep most of the doors and windows open, so that part of it takes more getting used to, I think - you can hear everything outside and in, and you have to remember that there are gates all around to keep you safe.
I have not had a breakdown yet, but I've definitely had frustration with not ever fully understanding things, and I will surely have more frustrating moments in which I will break down, but not as of yet. I'm looking forward to the weekend, picking up on habits, customs, language, and enjoying the nature. That I may not burn up out in the country! And, for you, that I may not be as long-winded each time I write!
¡Que soñamos con los angelitos! (May we dream of little angels!)