Tuesday, June 9, 2015

A Day in the Life

7:05am- Mama knocks on my door "Permiso...La Carly..." (that's right; Chileans address other people by saying 
'the Carly' as if you are an object and not a person) She tells me that the micro (bus) workers are on strike and that I won't be able to catch a bus and therefore will have to walk to the nearest metro station if I want to get anywhere...lovely- the one place in Santiago that is just out of reach from the metro is Nunoa. This is where I live and this is where the workers conveniently decided that they needed better working conditions (maybe it has something to do with the fact that maybe half of the people I see getting on the bus ACTUALLY PAY). Of course if you live in Nunoa that means that you have to take a bus to get anywhere- aint no metro station for miles. Therefore the 30 minute walk to the nearest station plus the travel time from that point on was not going to allow me to arrive to class on time (or even before it was over for that matter...). Back to dreamland I went. 
9:30am- Wake up from a less than peaceful 2 hour semi-nap. Camila and Mama typically are incapable of keeping the noise to a minimum when they get ready...I'm talking blender usage, blow drying their hair, yelling up the stairs to one and another...Anywho- I finally drag myself out of bed and get some breakfast in my belly. Today I have cereal with strawberries and I eat it while checking my email and starting my homework.
12:00pm- I make myself some lunch after working on my homework, scrolling through facebook, emailing my professor to explain why I wasn't in class and reading up on the latest "contigency plan" the transantiago bus company has come up with. I re-heat some rice and chicken and eat that before I leave for my indoor cycling class.
1:00pm- I re-load my Bip! card with money (I seriously feel like I put money on my card like 2x a week...whoever said public transportation saves you money didn't know about the re-entry fee you have to pay if you get back on the metro even within a 5 minute time frame) so that I can catch a re-purposed bus that has my bus number in the front window. Apart from my typical 403 orange bus I instead board a turquoise bus that the lovely transantiago has employed to get all the Nunoa residents to a trusty metro station. 
2:00-3:00pm- after a 45ish minute commute I arrive at the San Joaquin campus for my indoor cycling class with my favorite 'prof' ever. We start the class off with some ab, tricep and push-up exercises and then make our way through a cycling workout that takes about 40 minutes. I really enjoy this class and it always goes by pretty fast- we do a combination of speed work, intervals and some high intensity pulsing. 
4:30-5:50pm- my Advanced Spanish class. Today we talked about some grammar concept having to do with indirect speech. Don't ask me what that means because I'm still not sure- which isn't surprising because apparently it's not a thing in English. It's just one more thing I have to memorize as far as which tense to use when talking about something someone said in the past...oye. 
5:00-5:45pm- in transit via metro to Plaza Egaña, the closest metro stop to my house and also the home of a pretty large shopping mall. Here I peruse the department stores for a Chilean futbol jersey and I finally decide on a white one with blue and red accents. When I bring it up to the cashier I am met with a dilemma I often face. The silly man wants me to speak english because apparently that would be "más fácil" for him. Newsflash- my spanish is not that bad and it would not be easier for me to speak english. I continue to answer him in spanish when he asks me questions in english because I know for a fact that he could understand me if he tried. That's the thing- lately I've noticed that often Chileans automatically try to speak to me in English instead of trying to understand my semi-decent spanish. They just give up trying to listen and move on. It's quite annoying and I just wasn't having it today. In fact he was all like are you accustomed to Chile? and of course I said yes and then I told him I was excited to go to the Copa America game and that was why I was buying the jersey, but I mentioned that I was a little nervous about it (all of this was in spanish and he understood it all mind you). What is his response? Well do you think you will be able to ask for help or directions if you need to? Seriously dude...I just spent the last 2 minutes talking to you in spanish, YES I CAN SPEAK SUFFICIENT SPANISH TO SURVIVE. rant over. 
7:15pm- Catch the bus back to my house and surprisingly enter to find that Mama is already home. She wants to have dinner together and of course I am more than happy to do so. Especially when she suggested that we have a (mini- maybe 1/3 of the typical) glass of wine with dinner(; She typically doesn't get back from work until 7:30ish and I usually opt to eat before then because she never really makes dinner for the night of- we typically eat leftovers or I make eggs if I don't want to have the same thing 3 meals in a row... (lunch-dinner-lunch). She heats me up some 'porotos' which is the chilean word for beans- this dish had a little bit of pumpkin sauce with collard greens, white beans and spaghetti. It is definitely one of my favorite dishes that she makes and I gladly ate some with her while I told her about my trip to La Serena and she told me about the meeting she had to go for the study abroad program and how she is a great host mom and about how some of other families just aren't up to par like she is. She really likes to tell me all about the things she does that are a part of her 'duties' because apparently not everyone enjoys the hospitality that I do. While this is probably true...I think I've heard her list off these things about 5 times now....so I just sipped my wine and listened to the Gray's Anatomy theme song that played from Camila's room. The princess didn't join us for dinner because she has spent every waking moment in the house as of late binge watching Gray's Anatomy.
7:45pm- taking a shower...it's a process
First up, convince yourself that it's worth it because it is going to be freakin cold when you exit the shower (the house does not have heat- duh). Second, light the calefactor by turning on the gas, sparking the pilot light and turning the knob to full blast. Third- commandeer the heating device thing from Camila's room so that you can heat up the bathroom while you change out of your clothes so that at least when you first get out of the shower it won't be so cold. Fourth- turn on the shower, but make sure you don't put the water pressure on full blast because then the water won't be hot. This leaves us with a steady little stream of a shower but I'll take it because it's pretty warm...unless mama decides to do the dishes with hot water while I'm in the shower...like tonight. Oye. Finally- stand in about 6 inches of water while you shampoo, blah, blah, blah because the drain doesn't work as fast as any other shower I've ever been in (even the hostals have somehow had better drainage than this shower). 
8:00pm- scamper to my room and quickly put on layers to evade the cold. Notice that Mama has made your bed even though you just told her- right before you got in the shower that she didn't have to because you were going to go to sleep in a mere 3 hours or so. She also put the blanket you had taken off the bed back on it because it felt like you were suffocating when you sleep under the heavy weight of like 5 blankets.
The rest of the night- I made my typical after-dinner snack of fruit and yogurt, researched places in Bolivia to travel to, wrote this blog post and pondered the idea of waking up early to go to ceramics tomorrow before I have a tour of La Moneda....we shall see...Until next time folks.

xoxo

No comments:

Post a Comment