Remote Control

Do you ever feel like your life is controlled by a giant remote control?

Right now it's like someone's pressing down on fast-forward. Time is passing so quickly. I can't believe it's less than three months until I'm home! It's crazy. I can remember talking to Amina back when only one month had passed. We were marvelling how much had happened in such a short space of time and how much we still had to go. Now a month doesn't feel long, it feels dreadfully short. How will I be able to leave this place where I have all these new friends and family? 

A part of what makes time pass so quickly is having all these new friends. Since the summer things have been different. Talking to people just seems easier and we go out so much more. Part of this has to do with us now having a girl friend! Yeey! It's been our mission for so long! I mean we have girl friends but not ones that are our age and that we meet up with. Now we have one :D She's called Belén and she's 21. She's great. Really chill. Part of the problem of finding friends our age, is that younger people don't take as much time to try and understand us or have us understand them, and so it's difficult to be friends. We've already been to her house (I feel like a small child haha) and we ate lots of cake. 
So yeh having more friends means we go out more and the weekends pass so quickly. It has to be said, the majority of our friends are form capoeira. It's nice because we don't fit into one group of friends there. We can chat and get along with everyone which is really nice. 

We went to a friends birthday party the other night. We experienced a new kind of asado, this one called a disco. Basically a fire was started and over it they placed a big round metal dish. On this they then cooked onion, tomato, chicken, steak, mariscos and hot dog sausages in an oil/wine/beer sauce. It was very nice. You don't use plates or cutlery or anything. When it's done you grab the food with your hands or bread. Really tasty although there was waaaaay to much food for the eight of us there.

Did I mention we bought our friend an elephant hat for his birthday?

el disco - que riiiiico!

So yeh it feels like we've been majorly busy recently. This past weekend was five days long, because we had Monday and Tuesday off. Tuesday was the anniversary of the battle of Iquique and because Tuesday was off everyone just decided not to go to work on Monday. So that was nice. Were able to sleep lots and we even went to the cinema. Successfully. Not like the first couple of times we tried to go. Oh how things change. 

School-wise we're working on getting a heater for the classroom because it's so cold now! The chimney for the fire is broken so in order to avoid filling the classroom with smoke, we've asked for a heater. We now have one but we have to buy gas for it. In Chile there are no gas pipes, you buy gas tanks instead.

It was Sergio's birthday last Saturday. Eli, Fernando and the kids were down for it. We had a big dinner to celebrate. Meat obviously. Me and Amina had just come back from capoeira and were really sleepy but we managed not to fall asleep at the table. The cake they gave Sergio was hilarious. Sergio loves trucks. He works with them and knows all about them. Sometimes in the evening we'll see him just sitting in his truck listening to cumbia. So they got him a giant cake that had a road, a truck and mountains and everything on it. It was hilarious. Tasty too. It was nice to have the little kids back. Panchy is getting so big and looks like a vampire because she has two tiny front teeth now. Nanito is as adorable as ever. I was trying to get to sleep a few nights ago and heard him asking Eli "como está la Amina mamá? Como está la Bety?" So cute!

We were entrusted to look after Panchita for a little while. She's so cute! 

Great cake or what?

Agustin, Sergio, Ruty and Nanito

The whole family: Eli, Fernando, Sergio's mum, Agustin, Sergio, Ruty, Nanito, Lilii and Paulo

So yeh things have been pretty busy. Which is nice. I guess that was the point of this blog. That I need to try and get as much done as possible because it seems like things are going to be over before I know it. 

Lautaro Life

What can I say?

Things here are the same as they were. Really enjoying just living here at the moment. Working, going to capoeira, seeing friends, chatting with Ruty. It's all very pleasant.

It's getting colder here. It rained for most of the week. Getting up in the morning is getting harder as it feels like the cold is trying to bite my arm off when I go to turn off my alarm.

Lulu is remaining as cute as ever. After a week of cleaning up pee and poo Ruty has put her foot down. Lulu is now learning to go to the toilet outside. It is much nicer in the kitchen now. We've found the easiest way to have an annoyance-free breakfast, is to pick up Lulu and hold her on a lap while we eat.

Lulu helped us hang up the washing

We had Wednesday off school and it was very nice to be lying in bed at 8 o'clock and listen to the rain outside, rather than be walking in it.

This evening Ruty and Sergio told us that they're really happy with us. Sergio said how he calls Ruty twice a day when he's away during the week. He said once a day he asks how we are. So sweet. This led to a conversation about the differences between people here and people at home. People are so much warmer here. I don't know how long it will take me to get accustomed to not giving people cheek kisses when saying hello.

As much as life is enjoyable right now, it does feel a bit like it's winding down. Less than four months left. It's strange. I think I'll be ready to come home because it's hard not forming permanent bonds with people and things. Knowing that I'm leaving makes things harder. I'm also really missing cooking. I can make the occasional pudding but not having a proper oven makes that harder. Plus I really want to make some main dishes and stuff but I think Ruth might be a little offended if I tried. She might think I don't like her cooking or something. So yeh I'll be happy to get home but sad to leave. Everyone's so lovely here.

We went to the park this afternoon