siesta, empanadas, bistec a lo pobre, etc.

Well, my semester has officially started!  Classes are underway and a sense of normalcy has finally begun to sink in.  I have spanish class every morning from 9-12 and then a seminar every afternoon from 3-5 or 5:30.  Spanish class is broken up into two parts, one part focusing on culture and the other part focusing on grammar and vocabulary, with a different professor teaching each of the two.  Seminars in the afternoon are either the Field Study Seminar or our regular Public Health Seminar.  What I've really been enjoying is the 3-hour break we have in the middle of the day known as siesta, which directly translates to "nap."  Historically this mid-day break began because men working out in the mines would come home for a few hours to escape the hottest part of the day, and their families would take a break as well to spend some time with them.  The tradition held strong in many parts of South America, and here in Arica especially many people go home to relax, eat lunch, and nap.  Many businesses and stores close for these few hours as well. It's definitely a drastic change from the "always rushing" feeling in the US, but I think it's just great.

Monday night I was finally able to give my host family their gifts - a bag of saltwater taffy and an address book with different photos of Minnesota on every page.  I was a little nervous that it was going to be a really lame gift (it's so hard to know what to get!), but they absolutely loved it.  Luckas and Matias attacked the taffy like a couple of starving children and Giovanna poured over the photos saying "ayyy parecen cómo las películas!" or "ohhh they look just like the movies!" After that we watched an episode of "Quién quiere ser millonario" (Who wants to be a millionaire) which was really great too.  Most of the questions are focused on Spanish culture so I'm pretty bad at it, but it's fun nonetheless. 

pisco sour

The rest of the week has just been continuing on - the normal routine of walk to class, class, walk home, eat lunch/hang out, walk to class, class, walk home, do whatever.  It comes out to about 2 hours of walking a day which has been a really easy way to get some exercise in. Other than that, Tuesday night a group of us headed to el centro to hang out, get some drinks, and have dinner.  We wandered the streets and stopped in many tiendas along the way before choosing a nice restaurant with an outdoor patio area where we ate some absolutely amazing empanadas.  I swear, I could eat empanadas every single day and not get sick of them.  I also ordered my first officially legal drink there (woo!), a pisco sour, Chile's "national cocktail" of sorts, which was a little strong but not bad!  It was really nice to just hang out and decompress from all the stress of adjusting to a spanish-speaking life.  We hung out there for about an hour and headed down the block to another restaurant, T&T (or Tartas y Tortas), where we met the rest of the group for Happy Hour (they call it Happy Hour in Spanish too, it's quite funny) and dinner.  We ordered a variety of fajitas, salads, appetizers, and the real winner - bistec a lo pobre.  Bistec a lo pobre (which ironically translates as "poor man's beef" is one of Chile's platos típicos, or typical dishes, which consists of a mound of french fries topped with steak and fried eggs.  Two of the girls thought they ordered a single plate to share, but got brought the larger portion - which was way, way more food than anybody could possibly eat.  It was a great night of food, drinks, and company, and we decided to make it a weekly tradition that we fittingly named "Fat American Tuesdays." 

bistec a lo pobre

Another exciting thing:  yesterday afternoon we got our assignments for what kinds of medical professionals we'll be shadowing this semester (we do various outings to different health care facilities in these first two months and two of the times we have the opportunity to shadow), and I got assigned to a tuberculosis nurse and a matrona, or a midwife.  I'm really, really excited for both of these.  I think it'll be a really great experience and I'll definitely be able to learn a lot from both of them.  I'm not a pre-med student or anything (which I've already been re-thinking a lot during the first week of the program), but the international perspective from these individuals will be really beneficial to my future studies.  Also, midwives here in Chile don't only primarily specialize in birth as they do in the US (for the most part), but they also do a lot with prenatal care and reproductive health in general.  Definitely an experience to look forward to!

Next post: volunteering, hot water heater, salsa classes, aeroboxing, and Walmart.  There's not nearly enough time to write about everything!  Off to class for now.

Chao, 

Brittany

p.s. I put up a few new photos! www.flickr.com/photos/bliebhard