Por que por que

I now find myself asking one question quite a lot. Why do people move to a country when they're not fluent in the language? And now I've answered it. Because they think they know enough to get around, and that when completely immersed in it they'll learn very quickly. Then they get there, and they're stuck, lol.

Today was sooooo frustrating! I got food poisoning yesterday, or something, and haven't been feeling so hot. This afternoon, I was feeling much better and thinking I could venture out for some much needed necessities. Basically, I wanted to register at a gym and buy some more books to read. So, I headed up to Providencia to an english bookstore I had read about online and in some travel books. Lo and behold when I got to the address it no longer existed. This has been a running theme, and I was sort of prepared for it. But, what are you gonna do.

So I headed home and decided to get some food before heading over to the gym. After walking around nervously for a half hour, I finally just forced myself to walk into a cafe. I tried to say table for one, then just one, holding up a finger. Nothing. The lady just kept looking at me going que que que? So I left and got an empenada from the equivalence of a convenience store, or corner deli. Luckily, queso empenadas are delicious, or I might not be so happy to eat them every single day. After eating I still had 15 minutes to get to the gym, so I thought no problem. Well, of course, it wasn't there. I walked around for 20 min, and finally called and asked where it was. The guy kept trying to tell me in english, and I kept asking in spanish hoping he would just tell me in spanish. Needless to say I never found it and no gym for me. However, I randomly found another gym that I think I'll try, but I was just too frustrated to deal with registration.

Everything here is soooo hard! So far I haven't even successfully eaten at a restaurant, and half the time I ask for an empenada they don't understand me, so I point. Seriously, I must have a terrible terrible accent. Oh, sadness. Also, this is something that gets me everywhere I go, most of the waiters are men. In the U.S. almost all the waiters are women, and usually men are harder to find. Not that there aren't any men. I actually worked at a restaurant with mostly male waiters, but that's unusual. The fact that men are the waiters makes me feel less comfortable going in somewhere and sitting down. This is because the men always stare at me, a lot, and it freaks me out, so I basically just run away. If I could get a cameraman to follow me, it would probably be quite funny, but for now it's just making me really hungry.

On a happier note, I did meet Emily on Saturday at this great little coffee shop, and it was really nice just to talk to someone. She made me feel like I'm not a complete idiot for not understanding the spanish, and she agreed with my eternal hatred for the calefecon. Also, she's pretty tall, 5'10'' I think? (feel free to correct me Emily, lol) and people here are SHORT, so she gets stared at too. She said she didn't even question if I was the girl she was meeting, cause of the blondness and such. But we had a really good time, and even got to talk about things not pertaining to Chile, which may have been the best part. Honestly, Chile is starting to take up my whole life, which is sort of annoying. Blondie in Brazil, another blog I read wrote recently about how people seem to define her as the one who moved to Brazil. Right now I feel like I define myself by living in Chile! It encompasses everything, and makes me feel inadequate for the most part. But soon, I will acclimate! Or at least, I really hope so.