Hola! Como estas?
My life in the land down under became ordinary. I have a new routine. I wake up in the morning. Do some Spanish learning and/or watching some basketball, then I turn on my mp3 player and on my way to work I listen to some Spanish lectures. After work I listen to some more Spanish lectures. Then back home I do some Spanish again, take some rest and then the next day begins. My Spanish is improving, but slowly and painfully. Understanding part is getting better, but when you are around a lot of people and they all talk in different topics in this freakishly fast language – I get totally lost. I am getting a little worried it is not going fast enough but maybe I am expecting too much?
Last week I got a little bored and felt a need for new friends. I was sure it is not going to happen, but it does not hurt to try, right? I sent an e-mail to BEST asking if the is anyone around. Surprisingly – I got a fast respond. There is a person here. A couple actually. I was very excited I will meet some new people. We decided to meet for a drink. Despite that, I also received two more e-mails. One was from a friend, who apparently did not know I was in the land down under. Another one was from a friend I haven’t heard for ages. I tried to look for him, but could not find him anywhere. At the end I lost my will to find him, so I quit. And now he found me. Ahh, amazing.
So anyways, on Saturday night I went for my meeting with that newly found couple. While I was waiting for them, I have to say, I felt a little weird. Almost as if I was waiting for a blind date, but instead one, two people came along. Great people, in fact. We went for a beer and had a chat. It was great. Those guys are very nice and sweet, we had a lot to talk about. I came back home happy as a peach. If that was not enough I got a call from them the same evening later, inviting me for the barbecue the next day. Sunday was great. We were on the top of their building, so you can see a panoramic kind of view from it, sun was shinning, food was great. They all talked in Spanish, of course, but I listened. It was my Sunday Spanish lecture. Listen and pretend you understand. It was great though. We made some pictures, played with some soap bubbles. We ended week real well.
The next week the schedule was the same – Spanish at home, Spanish on my way, work, Spanish on my way back, home. On Wednesday, however, we went out – first for a bowling, then for a beer. I definitely did not expect to see so many people. All young nice and sweet Chileans. We played some bowling, I of course, did not become a star – I kind of suck at it, always did. When we decided to go to a bar. We chose a bar and before getting in, I started talking to one of those guys I haven’t seen before, only at bowling. He asked me about where I am, how long I will be here. He also told me he is from a city to the south from Santiago and if I wanted to visit it, I should and he would show me around. Once again, I was very pleasantly surprised by the generosity of people in here. Cause I know he meant it. Ah, I really like this part of the world. At the end of the night we left others at the table and went for the car. There were policemen there and my first thought was – we parked where we shouldn't have. But turns out – no. One of the cars had a window broken and possibly some stuff stolen. I realized right that minute that maybe it is true what they say about Santiago after all – you may be in the safe area of the city, but if you take a wrong turn, you will end up in a bad neighborhood.
On the weekend, which is not over yet, we had a barbecue at the back yard of the office. Meat was fantastic, people were awesome. Once again, of course, I did not understand most of the conversations, but I managed to participate in one. Slowly, reaching for the words, but at least I am getting somewhere. I am really getting luckier in here.
Greetings
It is, as in some more countries, common to kiss on a cheek when you meet your friends in Chile as well. What is surprising to me, though, is that they actually do that and they do that all the time. Take an example – we are 15 people sitting at the bar. If I decide to leave, I go all around the whole table, kiss every single person on a cheek and only when leave. It’s amazing. I remember in France they have this two-kisses thing, but if you meet a pretty big bunch of people, you don’t kiss every one of them. Apparently here – you do. It’s fun though. Shows closeness.
Avocado or Palta
No kidding. They eat it with everything. I was surprised myself, but it tastes good with everything too. And that couple that I met told me you get addicted to it as well. Not sure about the addiction part, but I do like it so far. They put it as salsa for potato chips [well, that’s normal, right?], they also put it on hamburgers and hotdogs, on sandwiches, on meat. Well, just as I told you – on everything. And soon it should be season for them, so I expect more and more every day now
Racism
I never thought I would be living and repeating `negro` that much. And it’s not that I became a racist, it’s just that in Spanish speaking world it simply means black. It was weird in the very beginning when I did not know this fact and heard `negro, negro, negro` all around, I thought – is it possible those people are talking of black people so much? And then it hit me – if Spanish speaking world has negro – meaning black, then how can it be considered an insult? Something just does not add up.
Off topic
Once again, I am getting myself involved. Probably it’s a mistake, not a good choice, but then again, you have to take that advice from time to time and take the wrong choice of yours. We’ll see. It did not kill me before. Should not kill me now.
You know what. It doesn’t matter. I learned my lesson. Again. Not sure if I can call that a lesson, since it’s repeated course again. But what the hell. I survived. Because I have a safety net. It’s not that different after all. I was good and I was remarkable. I can live with that. It is not my loss this time. No way.
Do you at least know how much you made me smile today? Even though it’s like a Greek tragedy, it’s still a best performance winner.
My life in the land down under became ordinary. I have a new routine. I wake up in the morning. Do some Spanish learning and/or watching some basketball, then I turn on my mp3 player and on my way to work I listen to some Spanish lectures. After work I listen to some more Spanish lectures. Then back home I do some Spanish again, take some rest and then the next day begins. My Spanish is improving, but slowly and painfully. Understanding part is getting better, but when you are around a lot of people and they all talk in different topics in this freakishly fast language – I get totally lost. I am getting a little worried it is not going fast enough but maybe I am expecting too much?
Last week I got a little bored and felt a need for new friends. I was sure it is not going to happen, but it does not hurt to try, right? I sent an e-mail to BEST asking if the is anyone around. Surprisingly – I got a fast respond. There is a person here. A couple actually. I was very excited I will meet some new people. We decided to meet for a drink. Despite that, I also received two more e-mails. One was from a friend, who apparently did not know I was in the land down under. Another one was from a friend I haven’t heard for ages. I tried to look for him, but could not find him anywhere. At the end I lost my will to find him, so I quit. And now he found me. Ahh, amazing.
So anyways, on Saturday night I went for my meeting with that newly found couple. While I was waiting for them, I have to say, I felt a little weird. Almost as if I was waiting for a blind date, but instead one, two people came along. Great people, in fact. We went for a beer and had a chat. It was great. Those guys are very nice and sweet, we had a lot to talk about. I came back home happy as a peach. If that was not enough I got a call from them the same evening later, inviting me for the barbecue the next day. Sunday was great. We were on the top of their building, so you can see a panoramic kind of view from it, sun was shinning, food was great. They all talked in Spanish, of course, but I listened. It was my Sunday Spanish lecture. Listen and pretend you understand. It was great though. We made some pictures, played with some soap bubbles. We ended week real well.
The next week the schedule was the same – Spanish at home, Spanish on my way, work, Spanish on my way back, home. On Wednesday, however, we went out – first for a bowling, then for a beer. I definitely did not expect to see so many people. All young nice and sweet Chileans. We played some bowling, I of course, did not become a star – I kind of suck at it, always did. When we decided to go to a bar. We chose a bar and before getting in, I started talking to one of those guys I haven’t seen before, only at bowling. He asked me about where I am, how long I will be here. He also told me he is from a city to the south from Santiago and if I wanted to visit it, I should and he would show me around. Once again, I was very pleasantly surprised by the generosity of people in here. Cause I know he meant it. Ah, I really like this part of the world. At the end of the night we left others at the table and went for the car. There were policemen there and my first thought was – we parked where we shouldn't have. But turns out – no. One of the cars had a window broken and possibly some stuff stolen. I realized right that minute that maybe it is true what they say about Santiago after all – you may be in the safe area of the city, but if you take a wrong turn, you will end up in a bad neighborhood.
On the weekend, which is not over yet, we had a barbecue at the back yard of the office. Meat was fantastic, people were awesome. Once again, of course, I did not understand most of the conversations, but I managed to participate in one. Slowly, reaching for the words, but at least I am getting somewhere. I am really getting luckier in here.
Greetings
It is, as in some more countries, common to kiss on a cheek when you meet your friends in Chile as well. What is surprising to me, though, is that they actually do that and they do that all the time. Take an example – we are 15 people sitting at the bar. If I decide to leave, I go all around the whole table, kiss every single person on a cheek and only when leave. It’s amazing. I remember in France they have this two-kisses thing, but if you meet a pretty big bunch of people, you don’t kiss every one of them. Apparently here – you do. It’s fun though. Shows closeness.
Avocado or Palta
No kidding. They eat it with everything. I was surprised myself, but it tastes good with everything too. And that couple that I met told me you get addicted to it as well. Not sure about the addiction part, but I do like it so far. They put it as salsa for potato chips [well, that’s normal, right?], they also put it on hamburgers and hotdogs, on sandwiches, on meat. Well, just as I told you – on everything. And soon it should be season for them, so I expect more and more every day now
Racism
I never thought I would be living and repeating `negro` that much. And it’s not that I became a racist, it’s just that in Spanish speaking world it simply means black. It was weird in the very beginning when I did not know this fact and heard `negro, negro, negro` all around, I thought – is it possible those people are talking of black people so much? And then it hit me – if Spanish speaking world has negro – meaning black, then how can it be considered an insult? Something just does not add up.
Off topic
Once again, I am getting myself involved. Probably it’s a mistake, not a good choice, but then again, you have to take that advice from time to time and take the wrong choice of yours. We’ll see. It did not kill me before. Should not kill me now.
You know what. It doesn’t matter. I learned my lesson. Again. Not sure if I can call that a lesson, since it’s repeated course again. But what the hell. I survived. Because I have a safety net. It’s not that different after all. I was good and I was remarkable. I can live with that. It is not my loss this time. No way.
Do you at least know how much you made me smile today? Even though it’s like a Greek tragedy, it’s still a best performance winner.
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