The Fam...

I have given in. I have started drinking Nescafe. Sad, but cheap (or in this case free, my host family has it… on second thought, everybody’s host family probably has it). I try to ignore the taste while I’m drinking it. I need some decent way to inject caffeine into my body. But whatevs.
Quick rehash of the week. There was class. I like my classes, I like Chilean professors, they are animated. I do not like classes that are an hour and a half long; it makes me feel like I have serious attention deficit-ness. There were also birthdays: there were four birthdays and three birthday parties. First on Monday, with Gloria, whose fam rocks (her mom and dad gave us a salsa show). Then on Thursday, with Micah and Richard, who took us first to Micah’s house and then to El Tunnel (or El TUNnel, not tunel) where we partied like rock stars. Then, my host sister’s birthday. She technically had two parties, one on Friday and one on Saturday, but I really only attended the Friday party, which was family style. Then, there was randomness, which involved romantic music in a soccer stadium (Sin Bandera is ‘Nsync part II, sung in Spanish, by guys who look like they're from Sweeden), cards with Samia’s host family, ice cream and my host sister’s boyfriend, a zoo, cueca, ‘trekking’ with experience and some negotiating with Pablo, and finally a giant muñeca and her rhinoceros. Oh, and a mob. So, it was busy. If you need details, email me and I will explain. I didn’t see my host family much, until Friday night. But, they are happy enough to accept that I will do family things with them if they ask before hand.
There are three daughters in the family and two dogs. My host mom, Valeria, is who I see the most. She is a work at home mom. For her work, she cleans the house and sits by the pool. She also watches telanovelas. In fact, we just watched half of one together. It was dramatic. She is incredibly opinionated about things in general, but I think it runs in the family because her dad told me that he didn’t like Michelle Bachelet, because her father was a terrorist. Needless to say, my host mom will tell you if she thinks you are fat, lazy, or need to practice Spanish. Not all of these have happened to me, yet. The love of my host mom’s life is Lukas, her dog. Lukas is a little high strung. He likes to bark a lot. When I first got here, he would not stop barking, making it hard to understand anything. Now he only barks when he wants to play or if someone he doesn’t like comes to the door. Lukas’ life partner is Julian. A little white, stupid looking dog that likes to sit on my bed or in my lap and generally reminds me of Socks, except he’s not as fat, or a cat. My youngest host sister, Vale, is Julian’s favorite. She is eighteen and is in her last year of high school. She just spent about two weeks in Puerto Vara and is going to Pucon at the end of this week. Other than her travel plans, we don’t really talk. My middle sister, Daniela, just turned twenty five. After they finished singing happy birthday, someone started to sing the wedding march. Awkward. Especially for her and her boyfriend. She also likes to go out a lot and sleep. But she and her boyfriend, Felix, are both really sweet and cool when I see them. She also studies Design, which is cool. She’s also twenty-five and still living at home. My host mom likes to complain about Dani. My eldest host sister, though, also just got married and moved out. My host mom misses Maria Ignaci a lot. She talks about how much Naci did around the house to help out. When I’m trying to speak Spanish, Naci is the most helpful, the most forgiving and the most willing to believe I actually understand what they are talking about. Unfortunately, she isn’t around much. My host dad, Jorge, likes to think that I don’t really understand a lot. So he quizzes me, which is helpful. He also talks about stuff that is probably really mundane to him, which is also helpful. He also seems to understand what’s like being a girl in a foreign country and really having no clue what the hell is going on, so he gives me tips on hip things to do while laughing at how bad my Spanish is. My sisters’ boyfriends and husbands are probably the people I feel the most comfortable with, though. Cause they’re like outsiders in the family, too. And while they are closer to other family members than I, I feel like they go out of their way to include me in the conversation while I struggle to understand everything. In any case, there’s an update on my family. They’re really sweet and fun, and have done a lot to make staying in Santiago easier. Okay, I’m done now.