3/4 Done!

Hey all!
Wow, I can't believe that I have a little less than three months here! I´ve been a bit behind on the blogging lately, thanks to being sick. On a postive note, cough syrup in Chile tastes much better than cough syrup in the U.S...kinda like honey instead of nasty, artificial cherry flavor. I will obviously keep up the blog posts, but they may just be focusing on less travels and more living here. Even still, there is always something to write about.
A couple weekends ago, I celebrated an Easter Eve dinner with my California friend Andrea, her Chilean tandem buddy, and a couple more people from our year program. We had homemade gnocchi, pisco sours, and plenty of dessert. It's always hard to spend holidays away from family, but being able to share them with others here makes the homesickness less. On actual Easter Sunday, Andrea and I went to a mass in the big cathedral in Plaza de Armas. After the Eucharist a couple of guys jumped onto the altar and unfurled a sign promoting a strike. This was actually covered in the news...where Andrea and I appeared!  Here's a screen shot of us, since our screen time is literally a second long shot...

Other than making it in the news, life has been going pretty normally here with plenty of school work. I had my first test in my Chilean theatre class, and it seemed to go pretty well. Plus, we got to bring notes since it was an essay style. I touched upon this in the past post, but thankfully it's a lot easier  now to follow along with classes now and get through readings. In fact my professor came up to another foreign student and I and said "You know, foreign students usually struggle with this class for obvious reasons of language. But judging by the work on some of your quizzes, you two really seem to have a great grasp of the language." That was one of those moments that made my past few months here so worth it!
As far as my internship goes, I'm really enjoying it! A lot of it is answering phones to schedule appointments for employers to come into the office and look for maids to hire. It is definitely helping my phone skills! When they don't need help inside the office, I get to sit outside and chat with the women waiting to get hired. Some of them sit out there all day, waiting for a good offer to interview for. The older women are a bit shyer, but there are a few women I've seen around a couple times love to chat!  Many of them have come from Peru, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic  looking for jobs. Sadly, some of them have to leave their kids behind in their home country. With Peru in particular you have to be with the same employeer for three years to have permanent residency here. A lot of times it doesn't work out with the employeer, so when they have to change jobs the three year rule starts all over again. Basically, that means  it can be really tough to be a permanent resident here since it's hard to luck out on the first job and find a great family to work for. Overall, it's really interesting to hear how the immigration situation works in Chile.
I've also stayed involved with the organization in my host university with which I did the volunteer project back in January. One of the guys from my group over summer invited me to join the Activities Committee for the fall project, so I said "Sure, why not!?" On Saturday, we had a get together at one of the student's house, with all the typical skit performing, competitions, and other team bonding activities any student volunteer group does. The difference of course, is that I was the only foreigner in a group of Chileans. I just feel really thankful to have the opportunity to be included in a campus organization. Everyone in the project is really nice and asks questions about my country and experience here. I tend  to respond and then reflect back those questions by asking what they study and where they would want to study abroad if they have the chance to(I´m not bias in anyway telling them to study in California ;) ) Oh, and apparently my nickname here is now "Eli (pronounced Ellie, not like short for Elijah!)." I will actually miss that little name when I go back, since none of my U.S. friends or family use it.
Other than classes and internship, it's just been hanging out and getting to know my housemates. Plans just tend to sporadically come together, but it's always a good time with them. Last Friday we went to a concert at University of Santiago (my housemate's host university). I was listening to the music thinking "Cool, this group is doing a really good cover of  Chico Trujillo's songs!" Chico Trujillo is a famous Chilean cumbia band, with a rock/reggae mixed style. Then, a student  nearby recognizing me as a foreigner turned to me and asked (in Spanish) "Do you like Chico Trujillo?," pointing to the stage. "Oh, it's actually them!," I responded, feeling a bit silly I didn't recognize it was them right away and thinking it was just an amazing cover band. Apparently, they play at a lot of universities, but I hadn't seen them live yet. So naturally, I was pretty excited...There are surprises here everyday!
So that's what I got for you all. I definitely feel like I'm in a different stage in my experience, but things are in no way winding down either. Chao for now!