Last night I went out with Mauro to central Vina. I asked
him what we were doing and I heard “going to a library so we can practice our
English and Spanish, getting dinner, and then buying some sweets”. It turns out
we were buying a Spanish/English Bible for me, then getting food and sweets. Oh
well, I got 2 out of 3 so I would call that a success. Yo entiendo mas espanol
cada dia!! (I understand more Spanish every day). This is sad but the way I have been gauging my progress is
by watching the news and seeing how much I can understand. The first few days
las noticias were merely Chileanos moving their mouths with a string of strange
sounds coming out. At this point I can understand basic ideas of the stories
and can separate individual words that are said. I have never been so excited
to not fully understand something in my whole life because I can at least
understand some of it!
Buying my Bible wasn’t too exciting. We went to 2 Christian
book stores, finally found a Bible that I thought looked good, and bought it. The
thing is really big because it has two languages but I’m really excited to have
it for church so I can understand the sermons better. So far it has been me
understanding a few words per sermon (because they talk a mile a minute), then
I roughly translate the verses that are put on the screen, and I attempt to
connect the dots to come up with a theme for the service. It has been a little
frustrating but I can honestly say I have never paid such close attention to
the words being said in a church before, whether I understand the words or not.
Mauro had previously told me about his love of Arabian food,
that there are only 2 true Arabian restaurants in Vina, and that he has spent
about 2 years trying to convert the Muslim owner of his favorite of the 2
restaurants. But lets be honest, I kept thinking: he’s in Latin America, why
the heck would he be eating Arabian food?! I now understand why, that stuff is
AMAZING! For me to say this is a big big deal. For me to even consider eating
at an Arabian restaurant would have been a big deal. But this place has changed
me. I was actually hoping before we left that he would take me to an Arabian
place and I was jumping for joy (on the inside) when we approached the door. So
we sit down, he moves his chair so he is sitting right next to me at a two
person table (awkward!) and we order limon sodas (bless my soul this soda is
sooo good!). Mauro ordered what I would consider and appetizer plate with a
bunch of different foods in small portions so I can try everything and decide
which is my favorite.
The food that arrives is a little frightening. The first
plate was a bunch of I had no idea what, wrapped in various vegetables. Then a
plate with some kind of pita/tortilla arrives with a small dish of “salsa”
which is just the Chilean word for sauce. And finally there’s a plate of
chopped chicken and beef (I think) that could be seen at the front of the
restaurant cooking on a rotating spit (this wasn’t scary, this was a relief
because it was identifiable). I started by dipping some of my pita thing into
the salsa which Mauro explained to me is yogurt, lemon juice, some type of oil
and something else that I couldn’t translate into English. I was pleasantly
surprised and went back for a second dip. This salsa ended up going on every
bite of anything that I tried because it was so dang good. Mauro said that we
can cook Arabian food together one night so I can learn how to make it YAY!!!
Moral of the story: don’t eat kabobs, they’re tough, dry and overall nothing to
write to mom about. But I do recommend the chopped carne and what turned to be
rice and meat inside any of the vegetables. The one that was wrapped in cabbage
leaves was my favorite and I also really enjoyed one that was wrapped in some
paper thin mystery vegetable leaf. The zucchini (which they call “Italian
vegetable” in English!!) and eggplant were only so-so but I could have eaten an
entire meal of them and survived.
American Slang:
Our conversation during dinner was awesome. I finally feel
comfortable enough to just speak in Spanish and not be afraid to make a mistake
or accidentally say something offensive or embarrassing. This helps a lot and
the fact that Mauro speaks some English helps a lot so I can end up speaking
spanglish if needed. He said that if he could he would eat nothing but meat at
every meal and this is when I knew that we are going to be really good friends.
His dad is Argentenian and he said he loves to eat the BBQ there when he
visits. I then bragged about dad’s BBQ and told him that during the summer we
have it about 3 times a week. I though he was going to fall out of his chair!
He looked at me for a while to make sure that I wasn’t joking and then replied
in English oh so dramatically “that would be heaven!” I laughed so hard that I
was getting strange looks from other people there, but lets be honest, that’s
nothing new for me at this point in my journey.
I told him that its strange for me to be stared at all the
time because I look so normal in the US. The said that it isn’t a bad thing,
its just that I have blond hair. A lot of girls here try to dye their hair
blond so when I told him that girls in the US dye their hair brunette he was
shocked and said that they shouldn’t do that. I just laughed again because the
saying is true, you always want what you can’t have.
Next he asked me what the word “freak” means because he saw
it on the movie Jackass. Thanks Stevo, now I have to try to explain this word
that at first to me sounded like “frick” when he said it. So here I am trying
to explain that frick is like “oh shucks” or “oh no”. Wrong Kait, so wrong.
Then the word was finally pronounced correctly and came out “freak”. I was
relieved to learn that I was trying to explain the wrong word and could
now explain a word that I knew how
to. I explained that it’s a strange person and then we moved on to the next
word: dessert. “Kait what’s the word for postre in English?” “Its dessert.” So
after 30 seconds of trying and failing to pronounce this word correctly we
finally got it bastante bien (good enough). “This word is similar to desert,
no?” “Yes but they are spelled differently” (I learned the spanish alphabet the
other day so I showed off my new skills and spelled them each for him. Whoo
hoo!) I mentioned earlier that the meat was being cooked at the front of the
restaurant but I failed to mention that it made the whole restaurant like an
oven. It was HOT in this place. So Mauro says “this place is a desert!” I
realize that this isn’t funny to you because you weren’t there but having just
taught him what desert meant and then this outburst after 30 minutes of him
continually mentioning how hot it was inside was just too perfect.
(This is a typical Kait-Mauro conversation. Lots of
comparing culture and lifestyle, learning new vocabulary, trying to pronounce
and use the new word, and tons of laughing.)
Dad this pic is specifically for you: This is me and Mauro on our balcony.
Overall the night was a success and I really hope I can go
back for more Arabian food eventually
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