Mi tercera y última familia. (My third and last family)
I am so lucky that I get the chance to live with three different Chileno families. I get to experience how lifestyles differ in Chile. As of Thursday, I am now with my third and final family for my last three months of my stay. This family lives in another comuna of Santiago, La Florida. La Florida is right next to the comuna Peñalolén where my previous family lived. The reason I was living with a temporary family for a month was because Experiment Chile was still in the process of interviewing families that had kids at the same school I go to. I am really happy that I have siblings at my school because there are more familiar faces at school now.
Here are some pictures of my new family, neighbor hood, and the backyard:
Wow! Another awesome welcoming accompanied by my favorite meal.
My sister edited this one and put a cool background on it! My 20 year old sister (she wasn't ready for the picture), me, my 15 year old sister, and my mom. The other members of the family who aren't in this picture are my dad, my 11 year old brother, and the two most adorable dogs I have ever seen. One of the dogs is named Poopy, they didn't know what it meant in English so when I told them, they all thought it was hilarious! And that's how my first inside joke with my brother came about. I share a room with my 15 year old sister who is in segundo medio and used to play soccer at her old school! She is so kind and is always helping me out. Today, I fell asleep while reading and she gently lay a blanket over me.
The backyard has a pool and a view over all of Santiago. What more could you ask for?
So, because of me eating meals with different Chilean families, I finally came to the conclusion that meals/meal times do not have one standard schedule. In this family, they don't eat much for breakfast, they have a big lunch, then once and then dinner AS WELL. (In my previous family they didn't eat dinner but had once much later in the night). So much variation in whether people eat once and/or dinner!
This morning I played soccer with my family and then we watched our dad play on his team. I love that fútbol (soccer) is the popular sport here; it's the most popular sport in the world, in fact. I think everyone in the United States who isn't interested in soccer is seriously missing out on this incredible game! Every guy here is on some sort of team, whether it be with their work, their school, or just pick-up games in the neighbor hood. It is extremely unfortunate that I have never seen a girl playing, even just in the park. There are very, very few soccer teams for girls in Santiago yet I hope to join a recreational one! I just can't get over how much love there is for the game here. If a person doesn't play soccer, then they definitely watch it. There are games constantly on T.V. and on the radio.
School is still going very well. I would say the hardest part is having to read a book every month and then get tested on it. It takes me a long time to read a novel because I have to look up about 5 words on every page and it is even harder when the book has Chilean words because then those words aren't in a standard Spanish to English dictionary. I ended up having to talk to the Language teacher and thankfully, we compromised on me reading fewer and less difficult books than the rest of the students. PHEW!
Some friends and me in la clase de música.
I am happy to announce that I have noticed a ton of improvement in my Spanish and I can't wait for even more!
My next blog posts will be about a trip I made with my previous family to the South and some events I participated in on the weekends.
Chao for now!