So it looks like it's been a while. Last week my parents came down to visit, so my days consisted of visiting lots of classes, then heading straight to the hotel for TV and free food...

The first Sunday night they were here, we had dinner at my house and with my host family: (host parents, siblings, aunts, uncle, cousins..the whole family). It was fun having everyone together, and I had to assume super translator mode, considering my family here speaks little English, and my parents speak little Spanish. Sometimes, my Chilean family would say something that I wouldn't catch, and when someone ask me to translate, I would kind of just smile and laugh because I had no idea what was said. But it was a really good dinner, and it was cool having everyone together. Thursday night we took my family out for dinner, this time with grandparents, and I got to translate toasts such as "We hope Emily doesn't love this family more than she loves us..." thanks dad.

Friday night, we went to Friday night services with a rabbi whose brother-in-law works with my mom. Small world, but not surprising because it's Jewish geography... When the services started, there weren't that many people, but as time went on (meaning 7:30 Chilean time, which can be a lot later than actual 7:30,) people kept coming in. There were probably about 40/50 people by the end which was pretty cool. The service used a lot of the same melodies we use at home, and aside from saying "de pie" instead of "please rise" things were very similar. It's kind of like when you're in a foreign place, and you see a McDonald's, well probably more like a Starbucks, and you like it because it reminds you of home? It's kind-of like how this way this service was, if I closed my eyes it was almost like I was back at home.

Saturday we went to Isla Negra, which is home to another one of Pablo Neruda's

houses. The third one is in Valparaíso, which I am going to see in October. This house is said to be the best one to visit, and it was really cool. It's right on the water, so the view is absolutely gorgeous. It is designed to look like the inside of a boat. He has collections of those things you put at the front of the boat, (they kind of look like mermaids) a room of shells, and a bedroom with an amazing view of the water. We then went to this restaurant which had great fish, seafood empanadas, and these amazing "crepes de manjar" which are crepes with the chilean version of dulce de leche, and chocolate icecream mmm so good.

This week has consisted of going to class. I've got mostly everything figured out, and have almost made it to class on time (aside from the one day the bus didn't come) but I still made it. I did spend a lot of time at the photocopier this week. This is not to critique their system, because it may seem I complained a bit too much in my last post? But this photocopying system is interesting, but does make sense. There is an extremely high book tax here, so no one really buys books. Instead, the professors leave a list of required articles in a folder at the photocopier, and you have to look through the folders of classes, find your class, fill out a form with the articles you want, hand in the sheet and pick up your articles later.

Pros of the photocopier:

*a lot cheaper. I got photocopies of almost all the articles for two of my four classes for about 7500 pesos, which is about $15. I don't think I'll end up spending more than $50 on all my classes, which is about 1/10th of the price I pay for a semester of books at WashU.

*I get to test my patience. The line to hand in the filled-out form to the photocopier can sometimes be very long and tedious, sometimes about 45 minutes. So i'm practicing patience, and getting very good at it.

*I've made friends in the photocopy line. Considering I usually have a lot of time, it is a good place to start conversations and make new friends.

Another week of class ( I don't have class on Friday) is ending...today i've been here 7 weeks, which is absolutely crazy. Everything is going by wayy too fast. Let's slow it down please, thanks.