So I have a few random thoughts running around as of now--but when don't I??? To start off, here's an update on my counts:

postcards sent - 34
earthquakes - 3

Now to delve into the deeper stuff...

I finally feel as though I have a firm grasp of the language here --and when I say here, I do mean here. I was previously able to understand formal spanish spoken in countries such as Columbia and Mexico, but now, I am able to understand the slang and horrific pronunciations used here. This past week I finally feel as though I am able to call myself bilingual. I am able to carry on conversations with fellow students, cab drivers -- the worst at pronunciation, and I can even speak on the telephone. I am particularly shocked with my ability to speak on the phone since I used to depend on being able to see someone's lips as they speak in order to figure out what they were saying. I was sitting in class yesterday and actually found myself looking around the room and daydreaming and still was able to understand what my professor was saying. That's an accomplishment. I no longer have to ask my professors to repeat our homework assignments after class to be sure I understood, and I was even able to completely understand our last critiques in my painting and general projects classes. And to top it all off, I now think almost everything in Spanish. When I'm thinking of what I need to do for the day or what I want to tell my parents when they call or what to write on a postcard, I think it all in Spanish. Sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing it. I've even found myself translating songs to spanish and singing along with the spanish version in my head --which is rather odd since the timing and rhymes never match. And the problem of speaking english like a Chilean --broken and backwards such as "the house of my friend" instead of "my friends house"-- and writing in spanglish, with spanish spellings in words such as "simbolism" instead of "symbolism."

That having been said, I feel as though my time is quickly slipping away. It's now officially november, which means I have less than two months left here. And to force the issue even more, Mark is now only going to be in Santiago for about another two weeks. He just booked a trip to Rio, and now with that and his other trips, he's only got about two weeks left in the city. The fact that he could plan enough trips to occupy the majority of his time left here means that we really don't have that much time left.

When I first got here, I was remembering all of the things from home that I missed such as peanut butter and cheesecake and being able to drink water from the tap. But now, I'm beginning to find myself thinking of the things I'm going to miss once I return home. I won't have a Castano on every corner for empanadas, or even empanadas at all. I won't have the security of knowing there will be an avocado with everything I order (which could be a good or bad thing...). I won't have my professors or my fellow students, or the campus, which I have grown to love for its small scale. In short, I'm realizing how much I have enjoyed my time here and how much I have really become accustomed to the traditions and environment.

It's amazing to think that the people who now seem like family were complete strangers only a few months ago. It's rather surreal to even think about how I won't be spending the next semester with them. They won't be in my apartment. I won't even have my apartment anymore. I'm finding as I get older that I've been going through the same experience more and more. People enter my life, play a large and important part, and then I have the realization that after a certain point in time, they won't be filling that large part anymore, and could possibly never be a part of my life anymore other than filling a space in my memory. It makes me feel old. I'm not so sure I like that...

------------------------------------

To switch gears yet again, I've been recently studying for my art history exam. Yes, that's right...I have an exam. I was completely unaware of its existence until about a week before, so I've spent the last few days attempting to study what little notes I scribbled in class. The material isn't particularly difficult, but the organization and translation of my notes has been a bit of a battle. And to top it off, all I would really like to do is make what sense of them I can, and then go to a study group in Michael's Co-op and have a study session. I need the room with far too many people crammed inside, the french press coffee, jake and his laptop, attempting to record the session to play back later. For as much as I like my art classes and professors and such here, nothing beats the community we have back in ann arbor. Comparing the community aspect of students here with that back in ann arbor, I'm extremely lucky to be studying and living where I am. I have the resources of galleries, practicing artists, a welcoming city, and a school filled with people who are all too willing to help with anything and everything you happen to be doing. Ann Arbor really is a great place to have as a "home-base".