I just spent the last 20 minutes in a slapstick effort to retrieve my dropped pencil from the floor of the airplane without waking my son and the other nearby passengers with my contortions and muttered swears. The end results: 1) I (clearly) have managed to secure my writing utensil, and 2) I have had enough time to think better of my initial plan to poetically explore my feelings about finally arriving in Chile, via the metaphor of the slow materialization of the Chilean landscapes as the sun begins its ascent outside my east-facing plane window. (This is due less to a sudden onset of good taste than it is to the fact that we're still so far from land that the only things the sun is revealing are a whole lot of water and a handful of clouds.)
So...no metaphor. How am I feeling? Excited, nervous, and reasonably sure that my right knee-cap is going to explode before we touch down in an hour and seventeen minutes. I'm excited about meeting my family and teacher. I'm excited about finally getting a look inside the school. I'm excited about finding my way in unfamiliar spaces. I'm nervous about language barriers and functioning in other people's spaces. At the end of the day, though, I'm far more excited than I am nervous.
P.S. - My knee-cap did not explode.
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| I did eventually manage to see the sun coming up over the Andes mountains. |
May 14, 2017
I woke up in Chile this morning! The day was as full as I could have ever imagined it would be. Today was mother's day, and despite not spending it with my own family, I was able to enjoy the day with the extended family of my hosts. It was fascinating to see four generations of women interacting on Mother's Day. My host mother's grandmother was every bit the matriarch, and it is clear that she is held in high esteem by the entire family.
Some firsts today:
- 1st pisco sour
- 1st Chilean wine
- 1st Choripan
- 1st time I've eaten four different kinds of cake in less than 24 hours. (At least one with every meal)
There is a tiny doll sleeping on a little bed in the back of my closet. Her shoes are on a shelf in another part of the room. I promised Constanza (my family's 5-year-old daughter) that I would be very quiet so that her doll could sleep, so I should probably pack this up so she isn't awakened by the light and the sounds of my writing.
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| Coni saw my manicure and wanted one just like it. |
May 15, 2017
- There is a distinctive posture assumed by students taking math test. This posture in Chile is identical to the posture in the US.
- Cold hallways, warm classrooms, art and music in settings I wanted to explore, so loud, shy kids, polite kids, kids who obviously wanted to push buttons. I can't wait to go back tomorrow.
- When the batteries ran out on the phone and computer tonight, I fought the urge to grab the chargers. Without the crutch of Google translate, we had an incredible evening of organic communication. The girls danced a cueca, complete with kitchen towels in lieu of handkerchiefs, to unplayed music I could only imagine. The acted several small plays for me, occasionally calling on Rousse the schnauzer to play the roles of handsome prince and dance partner. They sang their himno nacional, and I returned the favor. We sang Dancing Queen. They pretended to be cheerleaders. Coni kept trying to slip naughty Chilean words into the conversation to see if I would notice. When it was time to go to sleep, I was sad that our fun had to come to an end. I think I need to "let the batteries run out" more often.
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