Nearly a month has passed since my last blog post, and I'm now just shy of two months in Chile. It's crazy how time flies. My weekdays keep me very busy, and my weekends are usually spent traveling and seeing the sights around this beautiful region. This weekend, however, was a welcome departure from that, as I spent most of my time reading, relaxing and reflecting.
It's autumn here, or at least as close to autumn as it gets since this part of the world pretty much gives fall a pass and goes straight into winter. It's very strange having autumn in April. Autumn is my favorite season, and when I see signs of it here it makes me miss autumn back home. Only ya'll aren't having autumn back home. I'm a bit jealous of the warm weather North Carolina's been getting, but this weekend was pretty nice here. I went for a walk yesterday, and as I was passing through the neighborhood a cool breeze blew by, carrying the smell of damp leaves and grilling meat. It felt like I should have been watching football, but all we have here is futbol, so I decided to make do by watching El Clásico. For those of you who don't know (which I suspect is everyone reading this), El Clásico is a soccer game played between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, and it's apparently a very big deal to anyone who is not from the United States. Aside from the World Cup, it's kind of like the Super Bowl of soccer because Real Madrid and Barcelona are supposedly the two best club teams out there. My host mom told me that one fifth of the world's population watches this soccer game. I have no idea where she got that figure, but I kind of don't doubt it either. It was a pretty good game (I think?) but it only served to make me miss football even more. Is it September yet?
My Spanish has been coming along pretty well, I think. As with learning anything else, the process comes with long, frustrating plateaus periodically interrupted by spontaneous, seemingly miraculous spurts of progress. I've been using a website called memrise.com, and I recommend it highly for anyone who's trying to learn a language. It's been an indispensable tool thus far, and I'm trying to think of ways to implement it in my classes. Tomorrow I'm starting a new, two hour-long workshop with some of my 12th graders. The principal of the school asked me to do it, and she's basically letting me do whatever I want so long as I improve their English. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do, but I'm excited for the autonomy, and I couldn't ask for a better group of kids to work with. They're smart, responsive, enthusiastic, and mature. I'm hoping I can make a pretty big impact with them.
Friday was kind of a hard day for me. Some plans fell through, things were left undone, and I felt completely ineffectual. It was one of those days where you just want to go home, crawl into bed, and try again tomorrow. On top of that I was feeling particularly homesick, and so when I got home I went up to my room, shut the door and put on some music, with the intention of withdrawing for the night. I didn't want to see anyone, I didn't want to talk to anyone, I didn't want to be with anyone. But then a funny thing happened. I went downstairs to get a glass of water and my host parents were sitting at the table, listening to some music and drinking some wine. I wished they hadn't been there because my only purpose for coming downstairs was to get a glass of water and I wasn't in the mood for a conversation. But being oblivious to my mood, or otherwise employing a different approach than I would to such a situation, they invited me to sit at the table with them. Wanting not to be rude I grudgingly sat down, resolving to leave as soon as the opportunity presented itself. But as I sat and talked with them, listening to the music and drinking a bit of the wine, I slowly forgot my sorry state. We ended up talking for about three hours, and when I look back on it now it seems silly that I would have passed on that opportunity, that I would have rather crawled into bed than share some good conversation with some good people. But the moral of the story is that when I found myself in a bad place I found strength not from within myself but from where I found myself. Whether it was by my will or not, I took advantage of where I am at this moment. And that could prove to be an invaluable lesson.
I've been listening to a lot of Josh Ritter lately. I've been a fan of his for a while now, but for some reason I'm just starting to gain a new appreciation for his lyricism. Maybe it's because now all my days are spent dealing with words. Anyways, here are a few I've been particularly hung up on. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
