July 30: Patronato

Today was super great. I woke up after hours and hours of sleeping. My host parents get up pretty late as well, which is awesome, because I never really have to feel guilty about it like I do at home.

After a delicious lunch of rice with vegetables and chicken, I went shopping with some friends to Patronato, Santiago's sort of Chinatown/Arabictown/most amazingly cheap shopping ever district. If you can wear it, chances you can find it there. I got cute converse like sneakers for like $10, although it was awkward because I accidently bought 2 pairs at first before I realized the error. O funny communication fails...

I had a lot of fun back at the house tonight. Dinner was delicious- cheese empanadas with manjar (dulce de leche) and bananas for dessert. Talking with the fam has gotten much easier. I've started to realize that it's ok to talk about myself a bunch. Today for instance, I explained how I often get mistaken for Jewish back at Tufts, especially by rabbis out to look for non-practitioners. My family didn't believe that people thought I looked Jewish and told me I looked Hispanic, which I thought was kind of funny, since I've been mistaken for hispanic for a few times (not ever after I've said anything in Spanish of course.) I've learned when to ask questions too, instead of pretending to understand when I don't.

Some random facts I learned about Chile at dinner:
-Eating the last of something means you're going to get married- in the same way catching a bouquet at a wedding does.
-There is no death penalty in Chile.
-Spiderman= hombrearaña in Spanish
-Bodega= warehouse in Chilean, not bar/corner store
-Our dog has recently gotten fat since he had to have his testicles removed, which explains his, as my host-mom put it "balloon-like" shape
-My family is not against gay marriage (from what I could tell)
-Mapuche (the main Original Peoples of Chile) are engaging in tomas, "takings" of land in the South of Chile.