Ciao Oveja!

Right now I’m enjoying some solitude, as I’m the last person left at the hostel. Being the procrastinator that I am, I left planning all my Friday and Saturday lessons until the last minute and had no time to move everything into my new grande departemento today when everyone else left. I am quite excited to sleep in a bed with a real mattress and no sounds of traffic to keep me awake. I must say, though, that as claustrophobic as this place was at times, there were never any blowouts or drama ensuing like you might imagine.
The last three nights our number was down to about 5 people and it was nice to have some last minute pow-wows before parting our separate ways. Last night we had a particularly funny revelation about the lovely Oveja Negra (the hostel). We were all hanging out with Alejandra (our beloved hostel queen) and heard someone vigorously clanging the downstairs bell. She went down to check it out and from the dining room we heard a man’s voice and something like a request for “attention”. When she came back up, we were informed that up until only two years ago, Oveja was a brothel . . . all the honks and stares of passersby made sense at that moment- - what with all the nights we hung out drunkenly on the street-side balcony. Luckily, no one was ever propositioned for “attention”. There should have been a memo on that one, but it certainly wouldn’t have been as funny as finding out under last night’s circumstances.
Tomorrow is the big move to a real apartment. I found a place with two Chilenos- one man, one woman. Both seem really laid back and are around my age. The place is unusually large for Santiago and has a pool table inside =), large kitchen =)=) and a nice sized patio with BBQ =)=)=). My room is large, with a real closet (a rarity, I’ve found in apartment hunting) and floor to ceiling window overlooking a park. Rafael speaks very little English, so I’m confident that my Espanol will progress muy rapido. Whenever I’m in situations where English just isn’t an option, I magically have more Spanish power, so it’s exciting to project a language progress chart!! Especially considering how much more I speak now after only 4 weeks even while living with gringos. My effort with Spanish has earned me a lot of respect with students and the dynamics in my classes change the more I speak with them- - today I got my first Chilean kisses from students (three to be exact, but they were only cheek kisses- - no Mary Kay Laterno here, for those of you who might have some fresh ideas in your head!) and a few “hello Miss”s or “hola profa”. Hooray, I might actually be the “cool” teacher!!! Check back with me after the first round of quizzes.
I hope you all are enjoying magnificent spring weather –I hear Seattle is getting some sun. Sorry to you folks still snowed –in in Utah. I will enjoy the last moments of summer heat and sunshine here for you, before the cold hits Santiago and the smog takes over my view of the Andes. Thanks to all of you who are keeping me posted with emails, it’s always nice to get a taste of home and inside jokes, since (as you can imagine) Carol isn’t the easiest person to get - - at least for the first couple years. . . Ciao!