cant fall asleep! :-)

how is one to sleep here? its me again (marta), and its 1 am here and wake up time is only several hours away, but there is way too much excitement right now. we had such a wonderful night, after work (which continues to be awesome and thanks so much to our sotero residents who are including us) i walked over to teatro municipal and picked up a couple of extra tickets for tonights concert (espanol un corazon...heart of spain), then we headed out for the 7 oclock show. oh my gosh, gorgeous theatre, very authentic, renaissance 19th century, totally felt like royalty. we met with carolina and laura from columbia and took pictures, during intermission got some illy espresso (YES! a good pick me up after by pre concert sauvingnon blanc) and then enjoyed the second half of the show. i was amazed by the young flutist soloist (i guess that is how you say it), she was wonderful. it was neat to be out amongst locals and tourists alike enjoying good music. the enjoyment of wonderfulness continued as i led us over to the intersection of avenue londres and paris, we lingered on the cute cobblestone street onto a patio of "restobar pimenta", the food and wine was excellent. we had carmenere (vino tinto), i had congrio with vegetables (local chilean fish), the girls had seviche and jennifer had corvina with risotto marisco. (jennifer laura and carolina only let me talk in spanish). the flavors of food here are so robust - fish is amazing (mom, you are gonna be knocked off your feet), we sat outside as people walked by...super fun!

today was another good one at sotero del rio. there is a baby on the lactantes service who presented with a humongous cephalohematoma, he actually had newly diagnosed hemophilia B...crazy! i am starting to pick up on more language during morning report and afternoon seminar. lunch is a very fun part of the day bc we go with the interns to the cafeteria and eat together. today laura and i brought leftovers from our wonderful chilean meal last night (i have decided, there is only a finite amount of time here, must go out as much as possible....so you wont hear all too much about home cooking, although i am doing that for some lunches bc the market is too wonderful to pass up).
During afternoon seminar on hyperbilirubinemia this afternoon the attending asked me what our experience is with biliary atresia in the US...i could tell he was talking to me by his look and everyones eyes on me (did he not know jennifer was right beside me and speaks much much MUCH more spanish...!) i responded with...yes we take care of many of those patients...lol..im working on it! we had a great lecture today on skin stuff with our attending. tomorrow dr menchaca is taking jennifer and

my endeavors with spanish and some of my experiences here have made me think kinda philosphically about life...im gonna get deep here lol. no but really, i tell people - when i am trying to speak spanish, that i only speak in the present tense (for example, even if i want to tell someone what i did last night, since i dont know the past tense yet, i must communicate in present. this can be difficult for understanding. when i told my new chilean friends my disclaimer "i only speak in present tense", my friend said "no this is better, start simple"...what a great outlook on life. everything is much more simple if we stay in the present. getting caught up with the past or fretting about the future doesnt really help anything and takes away from the moment. wow - life lessons through learning a language. ill keep a tab on my new life thoughts and add them when i remember.

well i had better try to get some rest...expect more blogging soon (weekend plans include dinner and DANCING friday night, santa cruz wine valley, and more to come!!!)

besitos!!! XOXO
marta