el Terremoto Pequeño

I forgot to mention that while we were watching the soccer game, in the middle of the conversation on Wednesday, Manuel hushed me and told me to look at the banister leading upstairs: it was shaking and soon the entire house was. Nothing was knocked over because it was just a small "seismo" but it was a reminder of what this country is all about. Apparently small tremors like this happen almost daily. Some you're awake for, some not. Just to remind people that might be fearing for my life: large earthquakes like the one that happened a few months ago, scientifically speaking, happen only every 25 years so I'm not worried. However, catfish are known to be especially sensitive to seismic activity and have been said to be able to predict upcoming shocks weeks in advance. My suggestion: everyone buy a catfish and keep it in your toilet. There are earthquakes all the time near Chicago. You'll thank me later.

Showering has become the highlight of my day (unfortunately?) while living here. As you can see to the right of this post, it ain't warm here. I sleep in my clothes every night under 5 blankets. Chileans don't use central air/heating. It's not like they don't believe in it, they literally do not have central air. This entire apartment building has not a single air vent to be found. Even if they had furnaces, there would be no way to carry the heat into the rooms so the only thing protecting you from the cold are the walls and windows. Luckily, they do have hot water so this has forced me to shower out of the pure need of ten minutes of comfort.

Last night, my family, who are quickly becoming just roommates since they're so young and informal, invited people over for a small get together. Luckily, there was alcohol this time ( I don't drink a lot here since Giovanna doesn't drink at all) to lube the social wheels. There were two teachers from my school who seem very nice as well as a next door neighbor who spoke pretty good English. The neighbor's girlfriend was Brazilian and spoke Portugese so there were a lot of languages flying around. I just tried to cling to the seat of my pants and listen. It was fun. I got in some words but usually only when conversation was directed at me. It was literally 8 people sitting around a table talking at eachother for like 5 hours. I showed off the power of my liver by being the only one drinking Pisco (think Chilean tequila) straight though...so I think that gave me some points. The guy who spoke English was named Antonio and we became friends. He said he wants to hang out to improve his English and help me improve my remedial spanish so that's pretty keen.

Today, Manuel and I watched a vampire movie called "Daybreakers" which did the trick for my vampire fix although it was nothing spectacular. It had subtitles in Spanish so that worked for everyone involved. Manuel is such a nice, easygoing guy. It's great having him around. I love Giovanna as well but Manuel and I can talk about action movies and Def Leopard so that's cool. Tomorrow I leave for a winter camp which is basically just going to be me and a bunch of Chilean kids for a week. I won't have a computer then but I'll update soon. Ciao Ciao and thanks for reading.