Being.

Here is a place where magenta, lime, and melon houses checker the creams and whites. A place where a boyfriend is a pololo and a light, autumn breeze caresses your cheek on a warm day in March. The people are cariñosos and the avocados abound, served on toast at most every meal of the day. The bureaucracy can be stifling and the boys sometimes whistle, but looking out over the active city with its happy port from atop one of the various cerros –or hills- you can’t help but smile a little smile and sway inside yourself.

This has been my first of many weeks in Chile; smelling, touching, laughing, harrumphing. Wondering when my classes will make up their mind and just stick to one schedule already, avidly devouring choclo, humedas, and ciruelas –roughly translated as corn, tamales, and plums, and coming to know my delightful host parents who so lovingly include me in their daily endeavors. We’ve shared several meals, gone to the mall, talked with Robert on skype [ ;-) ], gone to a tea party at the neighbor’s house, looked over my endless photos of family and travels, and conversed at great length. I feel quite at home here, lacking only certain poochie-loving goofballs, raspberry-receiving adolescents, world-traipsing Omas, ever-huggable mamás, and orange-juice bathed someones.

As for school, I’m currently enrolled for my required Spanish class, two art classes –the first involving stamping and the second drawing, an internship class working with kids in a nearby community, and a biology class. The biology class might be cellular, but then again it might end up being anatomy. I’ll be attending various classes in the meantime, as I search out one that works for me and my schedule. I’m also enrolled in a 2 credit course of Into to Mandarin Chinese as well as a psych course entitled “Leadership and Coaching.” If I really like those courses, then I’ll simply volunteer for the internship and forgo the credit, opting for Chinese and psych instead.

My classes are scattered about the city, providing me with ample opportunity to get lost or take the wrong micro, or bus. But have no fear! I shall sally forth and brave the wild furrows and crescents of this intrepid city! I shall take the wrong bus no more than once a day and go where no Davisite has gone before! As you can see, I am quite optimistic about my future ventures, even if registration resulted in a short facebook rant. The upside of taking the wrong bus is that I get to take a nice promenade through lovely parts of the city that I have not yet explored. Jolly good, those walks! In fact, I purposefully exited my bus a few blocks early on my way home today for the express purpose of cheerfully accepting the sun’s rays.

Well, that golden orb does shine a little more brightly here, and the night sky looks a little strange even to such a novice star-gazer as myself, but this place is still just like any other; unique, beautiful, jam-packed with interesting, caring people, and unknowable in its entirety to a foreigner. Nonetheless, it should be lovely unraveling a few of those unknowns throughout the upcoming months.

Love and peace,

Jocelyn


PS Along with Kate, another girl from my program, I have decided to speak exclusively Spanish while I'm in Chile. At first, we were concerned that we'd be alienated from the other students because of this choice; as a exchange student in a strange culture far away from everyone you know and love, English becomes a linguistic comfort food. However, after no time at all, everyone became accustomed to our choice, and now they speak to us in whichever language they prefer, and we respond in Spanish. It is lovely!

PPS Te quiero.