¿rica, linda, o tiene algo?

so my brother sebastián took it upon himself today to describe to me some very important terms chileans use alot (they have alot of weird terms that no one else understands, so it was an important conversation). after explaining the meaning of "piola" and "pillín" he asked me if i understood "rica." this is a word that the chileans use all the time to mean that something's delicious, or beautiful, or they really like it, or it's really nice, etc so i thought i'd pretty much figured at least that word out. but apparently there's another meaning when it's used to describe a woman. he continued to tell me their are three classifications men use to describe women. 1. is "rica"or hot. 2. is "linda"or pretty or cute 3. is "tiene algo"or she has something (this one i don't really get, cata seemed to think that it was someone who was nice, but it seems like there's some other connotation i wasn't quite getting). i'm pretty sure that my brother also told me that if a boy calls me "rica" that that means "danger danger" he said. it was pretty awesome, a pretty classic big brother/little sister talk about the way things are. i thought i'd share it even though it's probably not half as interesting to you as it was to me...

in other news, my first classes started this week. i only have my spanish grammar and culture classes this week, and then next week my literature and history classes start. i had expected that the spanish classes would be pretty easy because they're entirely with extranjeros (foreigners), but i think i may have been wrong. i ended up in advanced level ones, and it seems that when they said advanced, they meant it. it's not that i'm lost, but often i just feel like i'm not smart enough to be in these classes. everyone seems to speak better than me and understand more, but it's only the first week. i think once i get comfortable with the people and the professors i'll feel alot more confident about them. it is nice however to feel like i have at least something that i'm doing here, some reason, something to fill up time. after two years of barely stopping to breathe, it's now weird for me to have times when there's literally nothing i have to do. college has made me somewhat of a busy body, i'm not so good at doing nothing anymore. it's not so much that i don't like not doing things, it's just that sometimes when i'm not doing things i feel like i have no purpose, like i'm wasting valuable time. please pray that i'll be able to fill my time with things that really matter, but also that i'll be able to learn how to rest and just be. i think learning how to be is something i need to work on, or maybe not work on, maybe that's the point...

anyways... the reality of this situation sinks in more and more every day. the fact that i can't communicate like i want to hits me like a brick every time i have try to have conversations with my family and we all struggle to be understood and understand. communication is a very delicate and wonderful thing, but it takes a lot of work. to speak you have to be able to formulate words that tell what you're thinking or feeling in a way that the other person will understand. to hear you have to be able to comprehend not just the meaning of the words, but also the person's thoughts behind them. this is often difficult enough in solely english, but for a spanish speaker and a spanish student... oh it can be excruciating. i generally understand at least the gist of what's going on or being said, but in alot of cases, just the gist isn't enough. and i can express myself in very basic ways, but often basic ways can't convey what i want to convey. so my family and i are continually struggling to understand and be understood, but we're getting better. yesterday i had a conversation with sebastián about this very same thing. it seems he has a friend who had studied abroad in the states or who was a study abroad student from the states (it's stuff like that that i'm never clear about) who had told him many of the difficulties they experienced while abroad, that were very much like mine. it was so good to know that he at least understood my desire to be understood and understand and how frustrating and difficult it can be to be unable to do these things we so often take for granted. but in all of this frustration and the loneliness that not being able to communicate sometimes creates, i understand that this is all part of the deal. this is how it works. i can't expect it to be any different. and it'll get better over time, but i can't expect it to be some magical occurrence like i think i sometimes convince myself it will be.

oh, on a lighter note, i've failed to mention in previous blogs an aspect of the chilean culture that has taken some serious getting used to. my first encounter with it was as soon as i got through customs and was greeted by the ISA director lizette with a huge hug and kiss on the cheek, and then the same thing happened with the other ISA ladies. i then realized that they're one of those kissing cultures, women kiss cheeks (or it's usually more like air) when they greet, no big deal. well, then i meet my host family, more kisses on the cheeks, this time by boys too, but they're my family that i'm going to be living with, no big deal. well, not too long after that, i realized the full extent of the kissing situation: everyone you greet, whether you've known them for your whole life or never seen them before, you great with a kiss. and there's no getting around greeting people either, you greet everyone! and then when you leave, well, it's time for more kissing! when chileans enter a gathering of friends they literally go around the room greeting and kissing every single person, and then again, before they leave, they kiss every single person again. it's pretty intense for the girls who was once (and in some ways still is) a kissing virgin. brittney, if you're reading this, it's probalby better that you never visit chile b/c i think your personal boundary lines would be ridiculously violated!

well, that about wraps up most of what i have on my mind at the moment that i wanted to share. this weekend i'll be traveling with ISA to pucón, a town about 12 hours south of here to climb a volcano, go river rafting, some sort of canopy thing, and all kinds of other fun adventures hopefully, so expect some pretty awesome pictures when i get back. i love you all and would love to hear about your life as well b/c i really miss that!