100 Days

Some interesting statistics:

Days: 100
Weeks: 15
Days it's rained: 2
Earthquakes: More than I can keep track of
Amazing experiences: See above

I've now spent just over 100 days in Chile, which puts me at about the 1/3rd mark of my exchange year. Seeing that in writing is startling- how could I already be 1/3rd of the way done with such an awesome adventure. Time is really flying by.

Admittedly, not very much has happened since I got back from Patagonia. I'm returning to the lazy days of summer, during which I spend a lot of my time in the 90+ degree weather sitting outside by the pool. Now that school is coming to an end, I'm done with college applications, and my Spanish has improved 100-fold, I can really relax.

Last week I celebrated an American-style Thanksgiving with my host family and some other exchange students. In addition to being an opportunity to get together and have a nice meal, this was also a massive learning opportunity for me, as I needed to cook for fourteen people. I started cooking two days in advance, and by Sunday afternoon I had make apple cake, pumpkin pie, stuffing, cranberry sauce, seasoned oyster crackers, mashed potatoes, gravy, chocolate chip cookies, and. of course, a big, beautiful turkey. This was my first time undertaking such a cooking expedition solo. I think that my mother is even more proud than I am.

Proud Father

Listo para comer con amigos

 In a different-but equally harrowing- adventure, yesterday I took public transportation by myself for the first time. You might think that 100 days is a long time to live in a city of 7 million people without once using public transportation by myself, but I've never really needed it before. Now that summer is here, I have a lot more free time and less people to drive me around. So I took a taxi to the local mall, walked around for a couple of hours, and then got a bus back home. Or, "mostly" back home would be more accurate. I got off at the wrong stop. Thankfully, I knew where I was and walked the twenty minutes back to my house. Overall, It was a good experience.

The frequent earthquakes were something that really interested me before I came to Chile. I had never felt one before arriving here. If you're one of the regular readers, you might remember that there was a 6.6 earthquake here on my first day in Chile, which, coincidentally, was one of the days it rained. Since then, there have been countless earthquakes (Chileans would call them temblors, like tremors, but they would definitely be called earthquakes in the U.S.), but I actually haven't felt about half of them. I can be sure that the ones that I didn't feel actually happened, though, because the interesting thing about earthquakes is that they're loud. I can always hear them before I feel them. They start out as a low rumbling sound, a lot like thunder but coming from underneath you. Then there's the sound of rattling glass. After that, they sometimes die away, but other times they turn into some definite shaking. The first one that I felt rocked the car that I was in backwards and forwards. There was  another one just a couple of hours ago, actually.

Over all, I'm doing really well. I'm not homesick, although I think spending Christmas away from my family will be tough. But it will be still be nice, having such a great, loving host family.

Perfect timing.