Yes, I talk about food mucho

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hello y'all

My mood: tranquilo. I got my tooth fixed at the beginning of the month. School is going well. I haven't been homesick, though I've had some healthy nostalgia. Like, looking back and saying "those were good times" but not feeling sad about it. Life is good. I guess I could use a weekend. Well, I haven't been homesick, but every now and then I have a sad moment.

Easter was cool. My gringa friend Laura came to visit for easter. We hung out, visited an iron processing plant in Huasco, and made nostalgic cooking projects. Banana bread and pancakes. We made my mom's and her mom's recipe, so we came out with two very distinct banana breads. Next time will be key lime pie and cheesecake. Good times

And when we talked english (the deadly foreign exchange sin), we noticed we were talking a bit strangely. Like, instead of "how old are you" it was "how many years do you have." And we say "more or less" way too much. We say "how do you call that?" instead of "how do you say..." And I still feel like "Ubication" should be a word in english.

We had some great nostalgic conversations about home, I tell ya. I suppose when we get back it'll be the opposite, talking about how we miss Chile

Since then I made some apple crisp, which came out very good. And then today was cebiche. It'll be ready tomorrow. Cebiche is for people who like fish. You take a raw fish. Preferably a fresh fish that won't have a lot of blood on the meat. Cut the meat into tiny bits, and drown it in lemon or lime juice. Like, spread it out in a glass baking pan and fill that sucker with lemon until the all the fish is covered. It is important that the lemon soaks ALL the fish. And if you want good cebiche, don't even think about that bottled lemon stuff, it's gotta be real. Leave it in the fridge OVERNIGHT, and ta da you have your ceviche, cured with citric acid. Put in a little chopped onion, olive oil, cilantro, garlic, pepper, whatever you feel like. Eat it on good bread that's not white fluff. It's amazing.

I recently tried a bit of pajarete with my host family. It's a very sweet sort of wine. We're going to eat some river shrimp tomorrow. That's how they call them in spanish. I had a couple today and I'm relatively sure they're crayfish, which I never thought of as shrimp. There's a saying in Vallenar. If you eat the local shrimp and drink the local pajarete, you'll come back. I really love my city. It's small enough that I walk everywhere. I get to know the shopkeepers and see people I know whenever I go out. It's in a valley with a river, so as you drive into the city after seeing so much desert it pretty much looks like an oasis. And it's not far from La Serena, which is a really cool city

I turned into quite the saliring machine in the summer, but I'm more of a stay-home kind of guy at this point. I can actually study and do well in school without too much struggle now. I've been cooking. I hang out with my host family. My host mom is amazing and we're really close. Life is good. Maybe salir on weekends.

I'm planning coming home July 1st, to let y'all know. Still confirming the flights and all that. I considered not telling anyone and just coming home to rice lake on day to ring doorbells and say "I'm here"

For the moment, I feel like I'm coming to terms with leaving pretty well. I feel like 3 months is a good amount of time to have left right now. I look foreward to getting back to Rice Lake, but I'm not dying to leave here either. I don't know how I'll feel when I'm down to a few weeks, but we'll see. It'll be sad, that's for sure

Something interesting I'm surprised I didn't figure out before. There is a lot more food possession in Chile. Or possibly just my host family, but I don't know. Like, in Wisconsin if you put some food out on the table it's served, up for grabs. But here, if you bought something, or you made it, it's considered yours until you serve or offer it. So if you make banana bread, even if it's a huge loaf and you set it out, unless you serve it people will probably ask permission to take a slice of your banana bread.

Oh, and an interesting word in spanish. Educación. At least to me, to say someone is educated means that they can read and write, they've gone to school, college, etc. In spanish, it means a lot. Educación means not only schooling, but manners, respect, morals. If someone is rude, they just might be called mal educado.

I tell ya, foreign exchange is pretty awesome. And if anyone out there is looking into this and they're feeling like, meh, a year is so long, it really isn't. If you've thought well about what you're getting into and you're crazy enough that the prospect still sounds good to you, go for it

I should get working on a philosophy paper. I have to compare Plato's Myth of the Cave (I think that's how it's called in English) with the Matrix. I'll see you all in July. Love you all

Ian

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