Me da lo mismos...

So today in my oral pronunciation Spanish class we are going over like general phrases to help us talk with Chileans and once again we are talking about how Chilean Spanish is so different from the rest of the Spanish world. For instance, in Chile, pluma is the word you use for pencil, pen, and marker, whereas in most Spanish speaking countries there is a distinction and lapiz is pencil and pluma is pen...ask for a lapiz in Chile and then they will just look at you funny.

While we are talking about these things the subject of how to say the phrase "I don't care" comes up and of course I'm like oh yeah, "me no importa" my professor is like no no "me da lo mismos" and then goes on to tell me that when I've been trying to tell my parents that I don't have a preference for the past month, I've actually been saying "I don't give a damn." Good thing my parents are awesome and don't care either way...but I'm glad I've got the phrase right now!

Our class size was small today because many of our kids were gone on a field trip for another class. So, instead of having regular lecture in one of our classes, our professor sent us to the cafeteria to talk with Chileans and come back and shared what we learned. My partner and I talked for about twenty minutes to two senior girls, Camilla and Macerena (yes like the dance...totally asked her that question and I did the dance) they were both studying law--leyes and were fixing to take their final exams for their specialty--dereche. They were super sweet and after we finished I had that moment where I was like whoa, I just had a whole conversation in Spanish with people other than my parents and those that I know here in Chile.

I've also figured out that the winter here is going to be gloomy for most of it....from what I have understood from talking with one of our directors, the sun doesn't shine much when it's cold here. She's totally right too, for the past couple of days it's been decently chilly and the sun doesn't really shine at all. If I had to guess, I would say that it's what Seattle would look like in the winter, but dear God I hope it doesn't get that cold...good thing I brought layers!

Also I asked for my mailing address today! It's pretty expensive to mail stuff here and takes about two weeks to get here but if you do want to send anything to me here is my address:

Leigh Anne Winger ISA Office
12 de Febrero #86
Valparaiso
Chile

Take note, that February 12th is the name of the street--it's the day Santiago (the capital) was founded.

Today I also gave my first oral presentation over the 13th region of Chile, all in Spanish! Whooo hooo...poco a poco. This weekend we met a girl from the states who had been here for four months and was leaving in July but she said after being here for four months she could speak and understand the language, THERE'S HOPE!

Tomorrow is the last school day for the week and most of the kids I came with are headed to Santiago this weekend for Lolopalooza--a music fest that would be similar to ACL. I'm staying here and have plans to explore the city with some of the kids that aren't going either, it should be fun to hike high into the cerros and find some of the secrets that the city holds.