a new home

Wow, what a crazy few days its been! Lots of new people and excitement.  Friday night we all got the opportunity to meet our host siblings and get to know them a little bit before moving in to our new homes on Saturday morning.  I got to meet my two host brothers, Matias (16) and Luckas (12) (I think I spelled their names wrong in the last post), and along with them were two of my cousins, Kimberly (12) and Dominica (10). We ate pizza and ice cream and got to know each other a little bit. I learned that my family loves soccer (no surprise there), going to the beach, singing, watching scary movies, and visiting their grandparents place (which I would compare to the concept of having a cabin in the US) in el campo, or Valle de Lluta.  Most of all my brothers said they love playing Xbox (wow, as if I haven't heard that one before? Ehm, Zac!).  They also informed me that they haven't had school for the past few weeks because of all of the protesting, and that's basically all that they've been doing in their free time.  Overall, the whole night made me very excited to meet the rest of my family, as I think it did for the rest of the people in my program too.

parte de mi familia chilena

Saturday morning we all woke up, finished some final orientation things, and re-packed all of our stuff into our suitcases.  I was picked up by my mom, Giovanna, and my two brothers.  They arrived at about noon and there was lots of hugs all around, both between us and all of the program staff.  We stopped downtown to buy my a cell phone and then went home to get settled in the house. It's fairly modest in size but decorated very warmly.  I have my own bedroom and bathroom connected with a little hallway that's separated by the rest of the house by a doorway. We had a great lunch of chicken, vegetables, and rice and then I went to unpack my stuff.  Later in the afternoon we got in the car to head out to my grandparents house in Valle de Lluta.  We stopped to pick up some other family members and drove about 8 miles outside of Arica into the valley.  The place was very nice - a small house with a lot of outdoor space, a garden, and a fenced in area with a few goats and a horse. After about an hour of chatting we headed further into the valley to a small village of Ponconchile where the annual Festival del Choclo (Corn Festival) was taking place (maybe I'm not so far from home after all?!).  It was basically a bunch of people gathered for some great food (all made of corn) and music.  I ate a delicious humita - a dense corn mixture cooked inside a corn husk like a tamale - and a traditional Chilean drink called mote con huesillo - a sweet drink made with dried peaches (huesillos), water, sugar, cinnamon, and wheat (mote).  I was a little weary at first (it doesn't exactly look the most appetizing), but absolutely everybody was drinking it, so I figured it had to be good.  Sure enough, it wasn't bad at all! It was a lot like a cold cider, it just had chunks in it (which were usually eaten with a spoon).  I didn't want to whip out my camera and look even more like a tourist, so here's a picture I found on Google images:

Mote con huesillos

We hung around the festival and the house in the Lluta for a while before heading back home in Arica, when I met my dad (Ricardo) for the first time.  He had just returned from work (he told me he works as a businessman for Walmart, I'm not sure if he means the actual Walmart or a Chilean version) and spends a lot of time traveling for business.  All in all, it was a great first day with my new Chilean family.  

I woke up around 9:00 this morning not knowing what exactly to expect for my first Sunday in Arica.  Things in general are always relaxed in the city, with time not being a very strict thing, and we'd only been told that Sunday is even more so.  Almost all stores, with the exceptions of supermarkets, pharmacies, and a select few restaurants, are not open at all.  Nobody else was awake when I woke up, so I figured they were either still sleeping or had gone to run some errands or something. Anyways, time kept ticking by until finally it was 11:30, and since there was still no sign of everybody I decided I might as well take a shower, only to no avail.  I had not yet been shown how to turn on the hot water heater, so unless I wanted to take a freezing cold shower I'd have to wait.  My mom was up and about a little while later and we ate breakfast (yes, at noon!) and she explained to me that yes, Sundays are verrrrrrry relaxed days in the city and basically nothing of any significance goes on around the house (or in many other places, for that matter).  So this afternoon I met up with another girl from the program, Stacey, and we headed to the Fería domincal, the open-air market downtown that stretches 10-ish blocks and goes on every Sunday.   You can buy absolutely anything there - from basic clothing, shampoo, jewelry, candy, notebooks, toys, lingerie, to everything else - for very, very cheap prices. I'd never seen anything like it before!  I'll definitely be heading back a few times this semester to get some artisanal products (and essentially anything else I would need).

Well, that basically sums up my weekend!  Tomorrow morning we all have interviews with our Spanish language teachers to place us in the correct level of spanish class and then begin our regular classes in the afternoon.  I'm very ready to get back into a regular routine and am very, very excited to see what else this semester has in store for me!

Chao,

Brittany