Its good to be back in the states. I used to become annoyed at times when ATM’s here say press one for english, 2 for spanish. i have a little more appreciation for that question now. not many people speak english in chile. The cash machines in the mall did not give me an english option so I couldn’t figure out how to withdraw me some pesos. I had enough left over from my initial dollars-pesos exchange though.

and thank you high school spanish classes, I surprised myself with words and phrases that would just roll off my tongue from out of no where. For instance, at the airport I was buying some stuff and then I realized I wanted one more…I said, lo siento pero…quiero una mas por favor. Which I have no idea if that is actually correct but she seemed to think i knew what I was doing. Muchas gracias! Anything beyond simple little phrases and words though, and I really had no idea what was going on. There were times where I would mistakenly respond or inquire in spanish, and then the reply would be at length in spanish..oops, that got me in trouble more than once.

Food. Seafood is the cuisine specialty. I ate many things which I could not identify but as the saying goes, when in rome. I had sea bass for dinner once which was good. Fruit is considered "dessert", quite a contrast to the states where meetings are proceeded by a platter of 50 cookies each the size of a frisbee. but fruit does the trick, its not like I got edgy because there were no cookies. I came to the realization that almost everything in the states seems to be about eating. And eating for size. Everything here is so huge I mean, what is the matter with us. I could literally drive to store and buy cases upon cases of candy bars, a box of 50 fruit rollups, a bag of 10,000 tootsie rolls, pull up to a drive through and buy a couple hundred donuts. You can probably order a full meal in a bookstore. It all seems so ridiculous after visiting a country that seems to not focus on food outside of the actual meals themselves. And it shows- 95% of the people (young and old) in chile seemed to be very fit and not overweight. One woman told me the average lifespan is 85+ years, not sure if that is true or not. My point is that in chile, food is secondary to living life and being surrounded by family and friends. Here, it seems that food is so in your face—on tv, in ads, full grocery sections in department stores, hundreds of fast food joints everywhere.

People. The people in chile seemed to be very family oriented and affectionate. Women/girls are greeted with one kiss on the cheek (by both men and women). And that kiss is usually accompanied by a hug. Schools, airports, grocery stores, restaurants, on the street, waiting for the bus, in the parks, at the mall—friends, couples, families all hugging and kissing. Makes the States seem very cold frankly. Or maybe people here are more private, or maybe I live in a weird state.

On that note, I have already been to a fast food joint my first day back (for tacos). But i plan to eliminate snacking except for fruit. I didn’t miss snacking at all in chile so why start up again. Oh, i had the best cup of coffee ever known to man while in chile. It tasted so good, wish I knew what it was.

So now back to your regularly scheduled programming. I didn’t lift or run in chile but I will get back on track now. I want to become more and more focused.

I will post some pics later.