small bits about chile, mostly my food delights continue

This has been a good week, especially culinarily. As expected, good food makes for a happy chanchito, or small pig as I'm affectionately called. My new classes have totally filled up my mornings, and I spend the mornings in what occasionally feels like a monologue and often like a movie where there's only one person in the theater. I talk a lot, and often find that I'm the only one laughing at my jokes or reacting to other comments. This is (obviously) a bit of an exaggeration- my students do talk a bit (they're in a level 4 class of 8 levels), and a few laugh along when I do, even if they don't "get it".

On Tuesday Alvaro and I went to Colliguay, a small town in the campo. It's been hot here, so it was really nice to escape (after class) to a new place where there was water! There were posas, kind of a combination between a huge puddle (at least several meters deep) and a river that has no current. It was beautiful- I jumped into the water, and with the heat it was especially refreshing. We even thought ahead and brought one of my favorite summer fruits- a honey dew melon. Unfortunately, the yellow jackets were also pretty excited about it, so we literally left running with a swarm of bees behind us. On the way back, we stopped to chat with an organic farmer who generously gave us both a cilantro and an oregano plant, both of which are now thriving in my garden. He even took out into his parcela, or his chunk of land, and showed us the 16 boxes where he keeps his bees. Apparently each box of bees can produce 20 kilos of honey! And Salomón, our generous tour guide, was even allergic to bees! He swore that if you didn't show that you were afraid, that the bees would leave you alone. We bought a kilo of honey that I've been savoring in my tea lately.

After Colliguay, I made fondue with another English teacher I met through summer camp. She and her boyfriend both teach English, and it was interesting to talk to two Chileans about their experiences learning English to the point to be able to teach it, and hearing what they liked and didn't like about it. Not to mention, my fondue was delicious (as usual!). On Thursday, I met Alvaro in Reñaca and we went out for Thai food. It wasn't great, but I'd been meaning to try the restaurant for a while, and my salad had mandarin oranges on it, which were quite rico. Finally, on Sunday some girlfriends and I ate breakfast burritos (for brunch) and drank a mango bellini- like a mimosa, but with mango juice instead of orange juice- definitely worth trying. So it was a good, busy week with lots of flavor.

I spent the weekend applying for some summer jobs and updating my old CV to be totally rockin'. So while I've been busy figuring out summer positions and fall plans (writing an essay for the University application, looking into other universities), I've certainly been enjoying myself and taking full advantage of summer.

love love to all. Hopefully I'll be able to separate my stomach from my fingers and brain next time and I'll write something that has less to do with food.