A Living Legend

One of the most interesting people I have met so far is Félix Morales Pettorino, the Father of my host mother.  He has a long and esteemed career in linguistics, focusing mostly on Chilean Spanish and literature.  One of his most notable feats is the creation of a dictionary with real-life examples of word usage for Chile (more or less similar to the Oxford English Dictionary or Corpus of Contemporary American English) - Diccionario Ejemplificado de Chilenismos (1983-2010) which is, in its completion, more than 12,000 pages of Chilean Spanish.

The man is in his 90s and still writes frequently (I believe a book is currently in printing, expected out at the end of the year).  He has all kinds of works.  Linguistically, he has tons of publications on Chilean phonetics, morphology, syntax, to name a few.  Outside of linguistics, he has published poetry and a few ficción technica (kinda like science fiction but not quite equal) themed novels.

What an amazing opportunity to meet this man!  He gave me a 5 or 6 of his books, and I can't wait to get into them!

Below is a link to his blog (sorry, it's only in Spanish):

http://lacrucificadadelcerrocordillera.blogspot.com

The unspeakable. . .Bathroom Talk

One of the things I was most excited about was testing the myth about toilets. Many people say that toilets in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres flush in the opposite directions. So is it true?

Here's what I've found so far:


Northern Hemisphere:  counterclockwise
Southern Hemisphere:  counterclockwise

Myth busted!

I'm sad to say that they are the same. As simple as it is, it would have been neat confirm such a tale!

Home away from Home

I've moved in with my host family. They are very nice and accommodating. Their home is very warm and welcoming, tucked into one of the hills of Viña. I know most of you are reading this simply to know what's going on, but a few are reading trying to calm their worries, Mom. :-). No need to worry about anything. All is well, as am I. I even made a new friend:  Polly. 

Return Countdown

COUNTDOWN CLOCKS

Goals!!!

   I thought it would be a good idea to post some goals I have for my trip.
Some obvious ones:

• Get the classes I need to take
• Excel in those classes
• Improve my Spanish

Travelling:

• Antarctica - I would love to visit Antarctica!  Friends have told me you can actually go on boat rides where you can jump in the water and swim in the Antarctic Ocean!  Photos to come (here's hoping!)
• Easter Island - How did they move all those big heads?!
• Patagonia - I hear it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  Can't wait to see it!

Food:
I have heard the food is fantastic!  I want to try anything and everything (well, most everything)!
"Try everything once.  Only repeat what you love."