I am still using some of the Bariloche pictures since they are lovely and readily available on my computer...

My long awaited birthday package finally arrived, so that got me in a great mood fast and early on in the day. After picking up my box of joy I immediately began munching the newly arrived chocolate and met with the director of the exchange program to plan for Thursday morning when I'll be helping her lead an English class. I'm bringing my computer and showing pictures of Seattle and my existence in general in the United States. I always enjoy sharing a little bit about my life and my language and people seem to be interested in what I have to say. Classes were fine today, I always feel like I am learning Spanish so that makes me feel like they are a good use of my time. It's interesting because I was talking to my Spanish teacher this morning about the process of learning another language. I was telling him about how some days it feels like my Spanish is worse than others, and he told me that everyone including him experiences that when they are learning. On the days when I'm super tired he was telling me that sometimes it's better to talk in English so that I can rest my brain muscles a little.  

I had American Corners again today where I thought it would be fun to go over some common English sayings and figure out what they mean and if there is a Spanish equivalent. It was entertaining and I learned a new one that I was able to use later in the day. It goes something like, "The meat of the bull isn't transparent," and is comparable to "you make a better door than a window." Describing some of the sayings made me realize how entertaining they are, and for that reason it would be fun to incorporate some Spanish ones into my life. One thing at a time though, I'm still working on basic grammar structures and I don't want to make things too complicated for myself...

Marcelo and I have completed phase one of my delicious chocolate birthday cake. Tomorrow will be a day of frosting and assembling the layers, and hopefully eating it with his family if we're lucky. I don't cook at all in my own house because my chilean mom is queen of the kitchen and I can tell that she takes pride in her work and is a self admitted perfectionist : ) Therefore, between my own host family and Marcelo's family I feel like I have the best of both worlds. Right now my host parents are a little preoccupied with the anticipated arrival of their 5th grandchild, so they haven't been home as much as they would normally. It works out fine for me though because then I don't feel bad about leaving an empty house for long periods of time. Marcelo, Devin and I got dinner together since his mom always has a meeting on Tuesdays. Since Marcelo can understand English really well, we are able to have super relaxed bilingual conversations that are fun for everyone. In the midst of setting the table Devin made a rhyming joke in Spanish involving avocados that came out of nowhere and was quite impressive. So, with another amazing day under my belt, I came home to find out that Obama will be the next president of the United States. Not too shabby : )