Day 100

Today is day 100! To celebrate, I made a list of all the things I will most definitely NOT miss about Chile. haha. But don't worry, I balanced it out with a list of all the things I will miss. I had longer lists before, but I can't find them. Oh well.

Things I will not miss:
1. Stray dogs
2. Fleas- I only had one problem, but I'm always paranoid.
3. Sticking out- sometimes its cool or at least ok, sometimes it bugs me that everyone is staring at me...
4. Buses with no schedule
5. Paying for transportation- yay for Pitt student IDs and PAT buses!
6. Cloudy days- because cloudy=cold. And rain is cool, but it never rains, its just cloudy!
7. Host mom- To be completely honest, she's nice, but I won't miss her all that much. At first I thought she was very absent-minded and thats why she never remembered ANYTHING I told her, but now it just seems like she doesn't try. And she asks me dumb questions. "What?! You were tired after the caminata?" "Well, yeah, it was 27 km"... *sigh* Among other things.
8. Communication. I'm tired of waiting for emails from people I see almost every day in Pittsburgh, and of my family not being able to call me.
9. Chilean time. Sometimes its nice that I can be late to everything, sometimes it annoys me that everything starts late.
10. Windows without screens. Its a nice day. Do I leave the window closed? Or open it and let half a billion flies in my bedroom?
11. Bakeries on every corner. Oh the temptation.
12. They put tons of oil and salt on their food. Umm, you don't need to cook noodles with soooooo much salt! Along the same lines, I don't need so much food! My host mom gives me (and everyone, except herself and Alejandra because Ale complains) enormous serving sizes, and usually I'm not hungry anymore after just the soup.


Things I will miss:
1. Fruit! Its so cheap here! And they have every kind, almost all the time!
2. Pan (bread)- also really cheap, and I'm getting used to eating lots of Chilean bread fresh from the bakery every day!
3. Flowers. There were plenty of flowers even in wintertime. And now its spring!
4. el Mar (ocean)
5. Summer. Its going to be cold and gray when I get home.
6. Easy-access transportation. Step 1: Walk out front door. If I'm going to Vina, Step 2: cross the street.
7. Prices. While there are some things that cost a ton (like a regular bottle of sunscreen for 11 dollars), most things are really cheap.
8. My host niece, Amanda. I'll never see her first step, first word, etc.
9. Free time. Although I have busy weeks, in general I have a LOT more free time than at home. And this sometimes gets boring, but seriously, who would not miss having so much free time?
10. Mountains.
11. Bakeries on every corner.
12. Chile is gorgeous. They say that God created the world, and then took all the leftover parts and put them in Chile. Its probably true. It has the driest desert in the world, the highest mountain range outside of Asia, 4000 miles of coastline, glaciers, etc. etc.
13. My ISA friends!