the chilean jungle and the island of gringolandia

i should really try and write about smaller chunks of time because looking back over like 3 or 4 days is just so overwhelming. there is definitely far to much that has happened to sufficiently explain anything. but anyway... I LOVE IT HERE!!!!! absolutely amazing. the perfect weather, my amazing ´mom´´ the kids in the program, the country, the city, the cheap access to public transportation, love it love it love it. we have been rolling like 20 gringos deep for a lot of the week because real classes havnt started yet so we havent really met chilean kids yet. that will come. for right now i am content to hang with the other expats because i know that we wont be like this forever, and they are all pretty cool. as i write this, a horse drawn buggy just drove down my street. havent seen that yet. anyway, we have kind of settled into this spanglish when we hang out together which is really funny, basically saying things with whichever phrase comes more naturally. i feel like ill be saying ´´que´´ for what for the rest of my life. another amazing thing- mullets. they are everywhere. its like a gallery of mullets of all sorts. there is also a wide range of faux-hawks and extended faux-hawks that we call fauxllets. other notable things in brief - illana, my housemate, is ´´superbien´´ pisco = amazing, as does buying a fifth of it for less that 4 bucks. chilean men are intense, and so is the machismo, which doesnt quite jive with my whole feminist side illana´s guy with his own bodyguard pools! the people that have pools are automatically my favorite. the heat of the day is too much without it. my language skills fluctuate with the time of day and my state of mind, but in general are better than i thought. i dont know what else, its great.