My decidedly non-fome little corner of the world

So it's possible that I've acquired my very own Chilean stalker. Aside from the fact that because of him I might be changing my class schedule, I find it pretty damn impressive that a mere two-to-three days after making some of my first real Chilean friends, I already have myself a stalker. Impressive, in my opinion. Side note for all parents/pololos (singular): he's not really or stalker-status--he's actually pretty harmless; he just has a way about him that makes the oh-so-Chilean word "flaite" (sketchy, más o menos) roll off the tongue.

Aside from said Chilean stalker (named Claudio, but his email address definitely includes the words "Brad Pitt"), things have pretty amazing these last couple days. I've made a very useful friend of Cristian, a fourth-year history major I have a few classes with. He and I had coffee on Wednesday after our geography class, and I am now officially invited to his hometown of San Antonio (Chile's biggest port city a couple hours south of Valparaíso...apparently it has a spirited sea lion population which I'm very excited about), as well as to Mendoza, Argentina with a group of his friends in October. He's also letting Emma, Ariel, and I tag along with them this weekend. Our two hour conversation was really fun for me, especially as I found out a number of highly important things about him: 1.) he has a Finnish girlfriend who lives in Valparaíso and will be part of all said outings, 2). he's not homophobic; in fact, he went on a hefty tirade about another classmate, René, who can't handle the idea of gay rights or gay relationships in general, and 3). he can't stand the Chilean (and generally Latin American) aversion to schedules and punctuality. It's a fantastic feeling to be able to walk into a classroom and know that there are people I can sit next to, and who don't mind showing me how to sacar las fotocopias or explain (yet again) what reading is due before the test.

And as I've been settling into my increasingly-comfortable routine of racing from random class to random class, I've noticed that more and more people on the street are stopping me to ask for directions. This I find fairly amusing, and also slightly embarrassing as they realize with the sound of my voice that I'm definitely not Chilean. Despite my at times disappointing lack of Chil eanness, I'm starting to feel a certain amount of comfort at this point. A new kind of comfort in which I can see myself settling back into a routine (as soon as I find myself some classes, of course), and curling up into a new life for a little bit. Even my difficulties at home trying to relate to my host mom seem to be relaxing and giving away to a certain amount of famillial familiarty. And the really cool thing about all of that is that I know I'm not resigning myself to curling up in a corner of stability and predictability. As the Chileans would say, I don't have to worry about things being fome; I've got this whole new world to explore, and recently-found friends with which to do it with. And on a side note, I apparently have an Argentinian accent and way of speaking. I've now been told this by my COPA Spanish teacher and by Emma's host parents who are Argentinian. I find this almost as odd as the fact that I apparently really like instant Nescafé coffee.