So I believe I left off at the market, and I’m going to start this post with that because it is easier. In any event, yesterday morning we went to a giant market in the middle of Santiago called “La Vega”. La Vega is basically the Minnesota State Fair meets Madison Farmers market gone sketchy. We were fortunate enough to get a ride with a friend of my host mom. In the car, I listened as they chatted. Even though I didn’t know many of the people they were talking about I understood a lot more than they thought I did. For example, I heard my host mom and her friend agree that they should set me up with the son of my host mom’s friend. Ugh. No thank you. The last thing I need is a 25 year old Chilean boyfriend who she described as a “big baby”. Anyway, after some seriously crazy driving we arrived at the market, and I was immediately swept up by the energy. People were everywhere, and as my host mom and her friend purchased tons of cheap (and fresh) fruits and vegetables I couldn’t help but admire the crowds. I immediately decided that I would have to return to the market without her, not just because of all of the wonderful delicious freshness (we got five huge tomatoes for 2 dollars), but because my host mom only eats healthy foods and I secretly wanted to purchase the Peruvian candy for sale at one of the Peruvian owned stands. God, I miss that stuff. Chilean candy is not the same. By the time we were done at the market we had purchased potatoes, tomatoes, avocados, bananas, lemons, carrots, beets, lettuce, pears, broccoli, artichokes, kiwi, a precut veggie mix, some weird squash-like thing I can’t remember the name of and a few other things. All for us. I guess I’m going to HAVE to start eating healthier. Haha. Anyway, so then we returned home and she made lunch while I rested as I was still feeling sick and quite tired. Lunch was multiple courses with avocado and tomato salad, bread, chicken and veggies, rice with carrots, and fruit for dessert. By the time that was all over, I was so full I HAD to nap. And nap we did. Three hours later, I woke up feeling slightly better, but then immediately feeling worse when I found out that my host mom was feeling quite sick… with a sore throat. I felt so guilty for getting her sick, I couldn’t handle it. I didn’t know what to say. Anyway, I did my best to help her prepare dinner since I knew she didn’t feel well, but we ended up just having a very small dinner of ham and cheese sandwiches and of course, my new favorite beverage, tea. I thought we were going to just turn in early only to find out that her friend, Luis was coming over. Luis finally arrived at around 8:15 with a bottle of wine in hand, and let me tell you, it was an experience. What started as a polite conversation about how I am enjoying Santiago, what I am studying, where I live in the United States (I gathered that Luis lived there for about 10 years in Miami, Houston, San Francisco, and New York), and the quirks of the Chilean language and accent somehow turned (with the help of two glasses of wine for Luis, of course) into a two hour long discussion of Chilean politics. Let me make one thing clear: I was warned about this. Our instructor at CIEE told us that discussing politics is one of the favorite pastimes of the Chileans. She wasn’t kidding. I tried to keep up with the very passionate political debate. The funny thing was though, I could tell both sides felt strongly, but they were still able to listen to each other and neither person raised their voice. This was incredibly impressive to me coming from a culture where everyone takes politics so personally. It was actually kind of refreshing, and I learned a lot from listening to them. However, eventually I grew incredibly tired and finally went to bed in my freezing cold room at 12:30.
Sleeping was a mess. I woke up every four hours to my throat being in agony, and me needing to take ibuprofen. I am fairly convinced I have strep throat, and I feel awful about giving it to my host mom since she is doing worse than I am. Even though my parents tried to calm me down about it, I still felt bad about it all day. However, it was still comforting to see mom and dad via skype and hear about what is going on in Minnesota. I miss home a lot, especially since I feel cursed in Chile. All I have had since I got here is bad luck, and it is beginning to make me quite sad. But honestly there is nothing to do except keep on keeping on. Sigh. Anyway, I emailed the director telling him I was sick and tried to enjoy a relaxed morning with my very sick host mom. Seeing her just makes the guilt well up inside me because both of us know that it is my fault that she is sick. But it costs three times as much to go to the doctor in Chile on the weekends so we have to tough it out until tomorrow. In any event, after lunch I finally escaped to get bread at the supermarket across the street where I secretly also purchased some chocolate. My sweet tooth is too much to just eat fruit for dessert. Lo siento, host mom. I snuck my chocolate into my suitcase upon my return and headed off with a friend who lives close to me to another friend’s house to prepare for the Chilean match against Venezuela! I’m going to make a long story short on this one: Seeing the game with about a hundred Chileans in the center of Santiago on a giant screen in the streets—awesome. Losing to Venezuela when we were supposed to win—not so awesome. Seriously, my bad luck continues. It felt like losing the Rose Bowl all over again, that’s how sad I was. I had studied the Chilean national team all day only to have my team of choice fall again to a supposedly lesser team. Underdog stories are only cool when you are the underdog. Not when you are playing them. Well, then our group decided to all head home, depressed as we were and also down two cell phones (two people lost them while we were watching the game, fortunately I was not one of them.) Anyway, so I arrived home sad and sick. Tomorrow morning I am finally going to the doctor with my host mom, which is good, but it’s at times like this that I can’t help but miss home. I wish I could just curl up on the futon and watch a movie with Patrick or sit at home with Stuart next to me and read a book. Hopefully with a new day will come renewed energy, because right now I am unfortunately feeling very worn down.
No comments:
Post a Comment