Hola. Ihave been in Arica for about three weeks now and I have so much to talk about but I will try to narrow it down. I am getting into a routine with classes and such and slowly but surely breaking out of my silent period with the language. There a few things that I miss from home...such as real coffee (enough with this nescafe stuff), snow (a little) and family, but there are more things that I don't have that I feel I ever needed such as dryers, seatbelts or answering machines.
One the other hand how did I ever live without siestas, places to go at night past 10:00pm, the beach a 20 minute walk away, and really awesome fruits and vegetables all the time.
The title today is a bit of an exageration...but it does fit in with the fact that everyday is an adventure. There is so much to tell...but I am going to stick with just today's story so as not to overwhelm the blog website. Today I got up early with a couple of the girls to go to the beach to take surf lessons! Every Sat and Sun there are different groups of people that set up tents on the beach and offer these lessons for fairly cheap...and so now is clearly the time for me to become an awesome surfer so I can quit school and go live in Hawii somewhere on the beach (just kidding maybe). We got on our wetsuits and had a quick lesson on land before jumping in the water. It was so fun...I got pretty good at getting on the board and kneeling (not so good at the standing part yet...mostly I just fall off lol). Then my friend Mei Lani came out of the water with blood all over her foot...oops. Something bit her!! Though the surf instructor said that no one had ever been bitten before, he didn't seem all that concerned...nor did he have ANY kind of first aid. It was a small bite but it was pretty deep and seemed really painful. We washed off the cut and called her host family to come save her...that was enough surfing for one day. Her host dad figured out that it was a Manta ray bite. Ouch. In honor of being bitten by things in the ocean...her family made a really awesome lunch for all of us with corn, potatoes, tomatos, and of course, shark! I have to say that shark is really good. We were all really stuffed afterwards. It was an exciting day...and despite the biting I still plan to go surfing again next weekend. Going to finish this blog with some more pics. More adventures to come in the next blog, I am sure. :D
I feel really bad for any child that tries to play on this seesaw because I am pretty sure they will die. This is my friend Karman (also in the salud publica program) and I after several failed attempts. :)
The outside of the Universidad de Tarapaca (Campus Valasquez) and the main building where I take classes.
Writing like this on the hills is pretty common and easy to see from a lot of areas in the city.
This is me with my family that I was living with for the first two and a half weeks (minus two). Always something going on!!! Lots of fun all the time.
