The annoyance I have with gringos speaking English in my classes has been building for some time. So I thought ok, if they speak in Spanish I will feel better about it. Not the case. I arrived to my dance class today and they were speaking Spanish, horribly mockery Spanish, without the rr sound, or for that manner very many Spanish sounds at all. I was just pushed too far; this is a Spanish-speaking country where you came to... hang out with people just like you and speak in your native language? I think not. And they did not even try to explain what they did not know in Spanish, they just reverted to English. There is a book called "I was so mad!" where the main character is in a bad mood and hates everything that goes on. That was me. I couldn't dance, I was so mad. I couldn't think in Spanish, I was so mad. My conversation group couldn't meet. I was so mad. English in my culture class. It was too much. And for the record, I am still a horrific dancer. If it's basic to you, I probably can't do it.
But it always gets better. First, I ran into Sebastian, who was unbelievably excited to see me. He is perpetually happy and excited, and it is infectious. Then I ran into Cristian an hour before chorrillana night where we were meeting up anyway. We met at Ripley and went to meet the others, Javi and Caroline.
There are moments you never forget, that define you, ordinary ones that mean something extraordinary. This was one of them. Cristian was introduced to Javi, and we talked about how her, caroline, and myself used to meet for lunch last semester every Friday so I could practice my Chilean Spanish. Caroline said [everything in Spanish of course] "Remember when Ellen didn't understand anything?" This at first sounds harsh, but it's not. A lot of things that are translated word for word into English sound very harsh to native English speakers, but are accepted in Spanish and are not rude. So, readjust your mindset; what she said was positive, I promise. It was a huge compliment, and I am so grateful, for their help, for their kindness, for their incredible patience. And it was true. I remembered 7 months ago siting in Gordinier dining hall at Millersville with the Chilean girls, hardly understanding almost nothing. After studying Spanish for almost 7 years, I understood almost nothing. But after three months here, I understand quite a lot. Here I was, with 3 Chileans, friends. I had friends who spoke another language, and I could understand them. In fact, I could even communicate back. Effectively. Then and now, huge difference. What Caroline said was to show how good I was, how I understood and had learned. I have not felt this proud in a long time.
JCruz (jota-cruz) is... eclectic. And shady. It is off the beaten track, down a tiny graffiti-alley, and it is scary-looking. The atmosphere was defined by two things: 1. the décor, which consisted almost entirely of crap that people left there, pictures, signed napkins, random objects, all preserved on the walls, and 2. the guitarist-singer who was entirely too loud. But of course I enjoyed it, because estadounidenses don't have guitarists in their restaurants. Remember the concept of the chorrillana? Delicious. We toasted with our sodas to me being here in Chile (Chileans toast to everything, which I of course highly enjoy). I became la Gringa Chileana. Caroline: "Why did you say you want to be Chilena, porfa?" it's true. Nothing can make your day better than being called la Gringa Chilena, though hearing "Pero hablas bien po!" from Cristian is equally as good; my day had now come full circle.
We left our very own napkin in the display case and made our way back towards Jumbo, but not before some ice cream, flavor Lúcuma. This apparently is a type of fruit, and it is tasty. Javi and I went up to Jumbo to buy the ingredients I needed for the día de cultura ferria the next day. Of course we could not find regular rice krispies cereal. Bummer too, because it is Javi's fav. Funny how the most simple activities are the most fun, eating, talking, wandering around in grocery stores.
Dani was intrigued by the idea of this exotic dessert. Another simple but amazing bonding activity. The highlight of this was definitely the "huevos de iguanas," referencing that the melted marshmallows looked like iguana eggs. hmm.
Soo in the end, today proved to be a rather good one, salvaged for the second half, by 4 Chileans.
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