Feliz Navidad

Feliz=happy, Navidad= Christmas, hmm.... I might have to side with the Irish on this one on account of majority rules. Things have been pretty tranquil here. A lot of conversing, reading and trips to the doctors office and bonus: my cousin has a little puppy here and I play with it all the time when it´s not trying to bite me. We had a pretty laid back Christmas tambien with the five of us (2 aunts, 1 grandma, 1 cousin and me) and a late visit from my uncle, his wife and son followed by the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" in Spanish. When my cousin, Maria Paz, has her vacation time in January we have a lot more planned outside of the city but for now I´m liking the slow pace of things. It´s almost the New Year and what´s a new year without a countdown list, right? So here are 5 things I have enjoyed thus far:
#5 - They have a stuffed animal dog that´s dressed up in rain gear and when you press its foot it plays "Singing in the Rain" and dances. My aunt Ximenia thinks this is the funniest thing since number 1 on the countdown list and sporadically throughout the day I´ll hear it play and her singing along in English the best she can.
#4 -My aunts (sisters) said they can´t gossip in Spanish any more because I´m understanding a lot more than when I first landed here. It´s a good thing because my Spanish is getting better but I wonder what they were saying earlier.
#3 -Like in New York, they have random guys come on the bus to sell the riders something or other... "Watch out for hop-ons". The other day a guy came on to our bus to sell us clothes pins and sing us a short rap. By the 10th minute my cousin and I couldn´t hold in our laughter because it was false advertisement and every second he kept singing the harder it was to stop and he could most definitely hear and see us as he c-walked up and down the aisle.
#2 -When planning our vacation for La Serena, outside the city, my cousin told me they have to return by the 15th because it´s voting day and they need to "fulfill their obligation", their words. Civic duty must run in the Quezada blood.
And the number one thing that I have enjoyed thus far (or that I can remember right now) is:
#1 -Last night my aunt Cecilia brought the computer chair up to the dinner table and slipped out of it and fell on the floor. You can imagine me not being able to stop laughing for about 10 minutes. Even right now, a day later, I´m cracking up just typing it out.
So, I hope everyone is well and their Christmases were memorable. The first picture is my abuelita Juana, me, Tia Cecilia, Tia Ximenia and prima, Maria Paz, having Christmas dinner. The second is 3 daughters of 2 of my cousins. The two older ones, Valentina and Vania, are cousins with each other and daughters of 2 of my cousins who are sisters (make sense?). The little one, Florencia, is sisters with Vania. (Aissa: Vale is Maria Soledad´s, Vania and Flor are Paulina´s). The third pic is Maria Paz´s nameless pup that we call niña.

¨What have I always said was the most important thing?...

...family.¨ Let me tell you what, my family here exemplifies this statement to a t. They are doing so much for me all the time, including tending to my injuries. Vice versa too, just yesterday I found myself eating fruit bread with mineral water, mmm... (laced with sarcasm) a snack obviously worth writing home about, literally. To be honest, on my first day I thought I had made a mistake regarding the length of my stay here but by my second nap my nerves had calmed and I haven´t felt any reservations since. It´s funny to notice the idiosyncracies that I share with them even though we live a hemisphere apart, they´re always laughing and no matter where we are we´re the source of a majority of the noise in the place. This is a picture of the front of their apartment and my Tia Ximenia standing at the doorway. She´s the youngest of my dad´s siblings and the funniest, she is always telling jokes (that I don´t understand sometimes, but everyone else is laughing). If you can believe it, my aunts and some of my older cousins are shorter than me. I´ll have to get a picture to prove it. I´ve reunited with a lot of family members and met some new ones during my couple of days here, so I can´t recount everything but here are some highlights:
- When my 88 year old grandmother interrupted a story I was telling to tell me that I looked sick and my cousin couldn´t stop laughing.
-The laugh of said cousin´s husband. It´s hilarious.
-Staying up until 4:30 this morning talking to my aunts, uncle and g-ma about astronomy, conspiracy theories, U.S. and Chilean politics (there´s an election here in January with a woman on the ticket), Chile´s history and our family.
-Every morning/afternoon I wake up the bruises on my face have gotten worse and one of my aunts always makes a big deal about it. not so much a highlight as inevitably funny.
I´m sure there are more but this is getting hard to write. Hopefully I´ll hear from you soon and that everyone remains safe. I listen to my mp3 player at night and the song ´New Slang´by the Shins takes me back home so if you´re missing me, play that song and maybe you´ll see me there.
love, b.
p.s. I passed physics 321!!

Bilingual, ambidextrous and 22

Those are the goals set for my return from South America in late Jan. The second may seem a little strange if you haven't heard the latest about my recent accident. This will hopefully be the last time i'll have to recount it (in English anyway). So I was heading south on 15th -west side of the street- for my last Fall quarter final on Friday when i crossed NE Campus Parkway (the one-way going west). A car going south on 15th turned right and hit me in the middle of the crosswalk. The light was green so I was technically able to walk but as collisions like these often go, the car won and I was knocked to the ground and broke my right wrist (you can imagine the tediousness of writing this post with only my left hand- maybe i should halt the asides). Anyway, I'm fine now and I'll be getting a real cast put on in Chile this Friday. The professor for the class whose final I was almost willing to die for (just kidding) is letting me take the exam when I'm back in the states, it's an incomplete class until then. As you can tell, it's pretty late and my flight to Atlanta is taking off in t-minus 6 hours but the anxiety of the trip has gotten the better of me. I know that internet accessibility in Santiago will be limited so I'll try to keep this updated as best I can. Until next time, stay safe and look both ways before crossing the street (at least twice).

I haven't left yet

SO, my first blog ever. I've heard of people getting addicted to these things because they think random people care about the details of their lives but i promise the only reason i created my very own "blogspot" is because... i know people care about my life, just jokin', my friend Sarah told me it would be a good idea while i'm gone to keep people updated on my trip whilst saving on stamps and repeating stories. (that was the longest sentence ever). So, here I am 5 days before my fated departure just seeing how this teknologie thing works- I've never been too good with computers. Anyway, 1 more final on Friday,then I can really get excited about the adventures to be. i might post some random picture for this day just to see if it works (and maybe to show off an adorable picture of my sister and me- and Wyle E. Coyote).