The Countdown Begins

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I can´t believe it, but 3 weeks from today I will be home. I´m of course excited to see those of you I get to see, but I´m not ready to go! Things at the hospital are awesome. I´m now shadowing an internist which is great since it´s a bit closer to our primary care (emphasis on a bit, however). He is an awesome teacher. He takes the time to explain everything to me, quizzes me on what he has already told me, and lets me take all the basic vitals and histories. I´m no longer with a med student but in some ways that´s better because it means he is only teaching me and I don´t feel bad asking simple questions. Plus I have become friends with the med students who, as it turns out (did I already mention this? I´m losing track of what was said here versus emails...) all live in Viña.

Joe and Eric are both gone, which leaves me living on my own. However I have a few girlfriends from the states left who are here from Denver (we met dancing), along with a solid group of local friends which I just love. I can´t believe how much more I feel like my spanish has improved by going out with them on weekends instead of going out with mostly english speakers and trying rather unsuccessfully to speak spanish for the night. Though really by my spanish has improved I should say my Chilean has improved. They speak their own language. I mean I´d heard that before, but didn´t get it. (Un ejemplo para las que hablan español: hola como estai huarron? Vai a carrete? Si no, que lata! Cachai?) I also just found out that I´m getting 3 new roommates this weekend, only one of whom is from the states. The others are from Trinidad and Brazil. I´m hoping the guy from Brazil doesn´t speak english as that will force our house to speak spanish.

I´m learning to dance la cueca, the national dance here, in anticipation for their bicentenario. It´s a fairly simple folk dance, somewhat akin to our square dancing. The traditional garb however is pretty sweet, though I doubt I´ll have a chance to wear it. I´ve also been trying to find out more about traditional cuisine, a surprisingly dificult task. Pastel de choclo however is freaking awesome and I´m going to try and learn how to make it.

I went to Santiago with Eric to drop him off and see the city a bit. It´s a fairly standard big city...oh except that you can see the Andes. Just a minor difference. No but really, it´s amazing. Basically anywhere you are in the city you can just look up and there they are. Breathtaking as it is however, I´m really glad to be in Viña. The biggness of it was just a bit much for me.

Well that´s all I can think of. Missing and loving, me.

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