Hola, Como Estas?

It is eleven o'clock at night here and I am excited to go back to sleep tonight. I have started to take a nap in the afternoons, because it is so hot (it was in the upper 90's today) and the days are very long. I mean the sun doesn't even go down til nearly 10pm.

This morning, Cecilia and I continued on the quest for my Chilean ID. We arrived at the place for ID's at 8:00 this morning and the line was very long. It was worse than the lines at the bars in the ped mall in Iowa City on a Friday night of a home football game. Chilean people do not need as much personal space as Americans do, so the line (even though it was on a street) was pushed up towards the door and about 2-3 people side by side, just trying to get in faster. Seriously, don't come to Chile if you get mad if people try to budge in line. Especially at cash registers, grocery stores, etc. What I couldn't believe is that people were crazy about pushing ahead in line and the place didn't even open until 8:30! So when the doors opened, it was a mad dash for the room with the numbers. Does anyone remember those red round things that dispense the triangular shaped pieces of paper that numbers you? Yeah, they use them every where here. I think its okay, or people like me would never get in to do administrative things. Anyway, we registered my passport and I went to school.

Yesterday and today were my first classes. There are only 4 students (including me) in Track 1 which is awesome. Track 1 is like Spanish 101. We have a young woman named Catalina for our instructor. She speaks mainly in Spanish, however allows us to clarify all our questions in English if we need to. I feel really privileged to have this kind of education. I mean in Iowa, I was in a Spanish class with 35 people trying to learn the language. Here I am learning a lot more and in a shorter time span. I get credit for 4 semesters of Spanish at a college level in just one semester which means that I have 4 midterms and 4 final exams. My first midterm is on the 29th already. Cecilia and Carlos have helped me with my homework each night. Well - I have completed my homework and they look it over. I haven't gotten one wrong yet. It is also nice, because they give me more to think about in Spanish.

Yesterday, when I came home from class, Cecilia had made my bed like normal, washed my clothes, and cleaned my room. It is so different to me that the women in this culture do all this work. She is a cleaning-aholic. Anyway, she also found my TV remote and left it on my desk. I have no idea where it could have been, but I am not going to say anything in case it was in a wierd place.

Hey everyone, James and I were able to talk on Skype. It worked! Even the webcam! I can talk to you all, on there.

Alright, well I'm going to head to sleep. I will try to write more tomorrow or later.

Emily