Day 82

For mother's day we went to my sister's apartment in Viña and celebrated with fondue and a day of family fun. We did this on Saturday and Sunday we had an asado complete with ribs..yum! I was happy to celebrate with my family here and my Mama definitely deserves a day of celebration in her honor but I was also wishing that I could have been home giving my own mother a big hug as well. I know I won't understand how my mom feels about me being in Chile until I am a mom as well but I do know that me being here has made our relationship even stronger. Being so far away from people I love forces me to learn to communicate effectively in the moments that I can. I am not always connected and not being to tell my mom the exciting things that are happening in my life at they happen--it makes me appreciate our conversations where we get to skype...or in today's case when I was pretty much in tears from excitement and had to call her at work on my Google phone. Don't get me wrong, I really am enjoying my time here in Chile, and this isn't the longest time I've been away from my family, but it sure will be great to come home to all of their hugs--and my loving little dogs of course. 

We are into the middle of the fall season here in Chile and it is dark after five o'clock and cold as soon as the sun goes down. It is weird for me to think that in Austin the sun is blazing high into the nineties. I am also excited that when I get home the Olympics will start--basically my favorite time in the sports world.

I also helped out one of the girls in my program who teaches English to a group of adults here. I had the best day helping her and am hopefully going to start helping out every Thursday. I love finding people who are just as passionate about learning a language as I am (especially considering they are beginners as well).

This week we leave for the north of Chile to go and see our parents' family. I am very excited to be going--our parents have told us that we are going to the mines, salt flats, and hopefully will get to see some flamingos! It is going to be a great trip.

I also have my second and third Spanish tests this week.