Mi familia cariña

The past three days  with my host family have been absolutely a joy...I did not imagine that it would be this pleasant and fun and perfect...especially since the picture that they sent in to the program was one without them smiling (I become nervous...but very prematurely). Funny story-when I was at the supermercado, I paid with my credit card and they asked to see a copy of my passport.  When I was getting it out of my purse, the sheet of paper that had the picture of my host family (the Gonzalezes) fell out, and my host father said "AY! QUE MALO ES!"...meaning "wow...this picture is really bad!"  I was laughing so hard that I had to tell him the story about  me being very concerned that everyones' host family picture had them smiling but mine were very stern looking!  It was hilarious...

Anyways....my family has wasted no time with getting me accommodated.  I have been with them for three days now and I've already been to the Nuñoa's park, grocery stores, super markets, swimming in the pool with the family, I played ping pong with Señor Gonzalez (and he wants me to call him Tío, and Señora Gonzalez, Tía), went to la ferría, which is a fruit and vegetable market, met the entire Gonzalez family (today was my host sister's, birthday), and so much more.

Oh, and about my family!  I have a madre, padre, and hermana!  Evelyn, my host sister, just turned 28 today! None of them speak english, so my mind has not had a second to rest the last three days.  I can only speak spanish, or I have to be a mute!

Last night, for Valentine's day, Evelyn invited me out with her friends.  Since Sam was out camping and canoeing with her host brother, Evelyn invited Kate to join us!  We went out at 10:30pm, and met Kate at the subway.  Then we went to this really fancy bar...it was packed with all of the pololos (pololo=novio in Chile!) and it was romantic, so Kate and I enjoyed being each other's date for Valentine's day.  We started the night speaking in complete spanish-with not a word of english, but as the night wore on, we decided that we could use this time together to give our minds a rest and resort to english...good idea because we were there till 5 o'clock IN THE MORNING!  2:00am rolled around and Kate and I were exhausted, thinking it was almost time to leave...but no! These chileans stay out practically until the break of dawn...we went downstairs to the basement and joined all of the young chilean crowd in the discoteca, and danced for 3 more hours!  Kate and I were the tallest women there, and the most gringa.  It was hilarious, and I am so happy I got to experience the chilean nightlife on my second night in the country, but I was glad to go home and finally fall asleep!

After mass today, my family wanted to introduce me to the priest.  Señor Gonzales leaned into this older priest, and said "TENEMOS UNA GRINGA!! SE LLAMA JENNIFER!", and since the priest still had his microphone on from mass, it echoed throughout the entire building...it was too funny to be embarrassing :) hahaha  

Oh, and during mass, I think I spotted another foreign exchange student!  There was this guy about my age who was very very white and was standing about 2 feet taller than the dark family next to him.  Evelyn and I were cracking up and we are almost positive that he's a student...practically the hugest guy in mass!

Tonight we had a great celebration for Evelyn's birthday....I met the entire family and some of Señor Gonzalez' brothers and sisters.  They are all so nice and I feel like I've known them for forever!

Alright...I have to wake up in 6 hours for my first day of CIEE classes on contemporary chile!  

Besitos,

Jennifer