Holla at your Chilean girl!

As promised, here I is. I hope all is going well for all of you and you have survived the storms.

Martha, Henry (my brother), and I have been running all over the place; Martha has the orphan feet and I have the blisters to prove it. We climbed the San Cristobal hill yesterday with "cell phone Mary", as Henry calls her, at the top. Really, "cell phone Mary" is a statue of the Virgin Mary visited by Pope John Paul II way back in 1987, when I was still slobbering on myself. Henry dubbed her "cell phone" because, unfortunately, there is a humongous cell phone tower shooting up to the sky straight behind her. It's a little disappointing to see technological progress trampling over a sacred and beautiful sight. Nonetheless, we do get good reception.

Our apartment is completely baller (thanks again, Dr. G!), and we have an awesome location to explore the city. More importantly, we are close to many good restaurants and supermarkets. I, personally, have to enjoy a culture through it's food and wine. The more wine I drink, the more I enjoy the culture and vice versa. So far, the cheap supermarket wine has been great, even the Sauvingnon blanc (I cannot spell French words, they always have too many vowels) that Martha bought on our first night. I usually detest that type of wine, but this was really dry and tolerable, much to my surprise.

As for the people and the language, well they are both fantastic, though the latter is somewhat more difficult to adjust to. As Dr. Fabres said, it's like learning English in Alabama, not the best example. The best part is watching Martha interact with the locals. She doesn't speak much Spanish, and when she does, Italian words slip through. (I might learn more Italian this month than I anticipated.) I think it's awesome, she thinks it's frustrating. Somehow she gets the message across, though, and the locals love her all the more for her efforts.

Martha just ran in from her day of adventure while Henry and I caught up on some sleep. She then just ran back out to explore the city more after showing us all the food she bought at the flea market. [Insert Martha jumping up and down, saying she is leaking troponins and her CKMB is elevated.] I hope we don't get e. coli, but if we do, I'll look skinnier in my sister's wedding pictures at the end of this month, although dialysis might suck.

Well, I will let you all get back to your lives now. Dialysis seems like a good place to end things.

Peace, love, and rock n' roll,

Jennifer