A Taste of the US, and then Lota!

So Friday we didn't have much to do (given that we can't go anywhere this weekend since the Lota trip is Saturday), so Evan and I went to the mall. We needed to buy more minutes for our cell phones, some school supplies, and a hat for him (none of which he liked here). Mostly I just wanted some gelato, and we were probably a bit homesick. Anyway, we watched Viaje al Centro de la Tierra (Journey to the Center of the Earth). It was dubbed in Spanish, so it did actually have some educational value for us. But basically we just enjoyed feeling like we were a bit at home. I would feel guilty about this if I were only here for a little while on a trip, but given that I'm here for three months, I feel that it's ok to be somewhat American every once in a while (and malls are actually probably pretty universal by now).

In the evening, we watched the debate. It was covered on CNN International and was exactly the same as in the US (exact same program broadcast here- complete with Wolf Blitzer, David Gergen, et al.). Generally my family here didn't watch it but more just wanted my synopsis. My host sister's boyfriend watched some of it with us because he is a law student and interested in such things. I found out that they don't have debates of this format (one-on-one) here in Chile. Overall, I'm very glad to see Obama back on track and doing so well! I only hope this carries through the election.

Today we went to Lota, a small mining and fishing town an hour west of here on the ocean. The bus ride was early in the morning but very fun. We spent it practicing Spanish and English tongue-twisters with the Chilean students. The town of Lota is poor but absolutely gorgeous (I guess you would expect it to be given that it's on the ocean). First, we took a tour of the mine which closed ten years ago but is now open to tourists. It was really amazing getting a small taste of how difficult that work is. We then went and watched bread being made in a brick oven (the traditional way of the country) and of course ate some. Afterwards we had lunch-- salad, fried fish, rice, and ice cream-- but it wasn't very good mostly because it was just too salty. Luckily, we had a lot of delicious bread. We then went to an incredibly gorgeous park which I really can't describe. It's sort of like the Japanese garden in Golden Gate Park in that it's so manicured and nice, but it's a lot bigger and not quite in the same style. Maybe it's like an English garden. Anyway, I really need to figure out how to post a slide show. If anyone knows, let me know.

The other news of the day is that I think I can feel my Spanish getting better. I thought it was stagnant there for a while, but today I started to feel like I've made progress, at least on the understanding part. I was mostly able to understand the guide on the mining tour, and tonight at the dinner table the second wave of laughter for at least one joke was because I understood when they didn't expect me to, rather than because I didn't understand. So, hopefully I will continue to progress.