1. I tried to steal Christine's pictures. It wouldn't let me post them. I will assess the situation and try again.

2. Happy to say that I am 100% recovered from last week's stomach episode.

3. Chilean Thanksgiving was a huge success! Especially Jaimie's deep dish apple pie (the deep dish part was kind of because we didn't have a pie pan and used a casserole dish instead). No kuchen de manzana for us. (The kuchen always looks so good, and then you realize that it's mostly bread.)

4. Recent triumphs in language:
a. Successfully buying a tapestry needle. This involved miming and repetition of the word grande.
b. Having a somewhat clever comeback to an obnoxious menu-pusher (not clever enough to bother repeating here, but clever enough to make me grin like an idiot as I walked away).
c. Using the past tense (incorrectly, I'm sure) in conversation!
d. Comfortably giving instructions to the little ones in class.
e. The following conversation, held yesterday, roughly translated:

Me: Hello, please. I'm sorry. Excuse me.
Girl at bus stop: (Gives encouraging face.)
Me: I want to go to the port in Valparaiso. Do you know what bus number I need?
Girl: Where exactly?
Me: It doesn't matter. I want to be close to the metro station? I don't know.
Girl: (Slightly less encouraging face.)
Me: My Spanish is terrible.
Girl: Get on that bus.
Me: This bus?
Girl: No, that bus.
Me: That bus?
Girl: Yes.
Me: That bus. My Spanish is terrible. Thank you.

5. Tomorrow's challenge in language: haircut. Yikes. I've been thinking lately about how weird it will be to come home and be able to take communication for granted. A huge percentage of my mental space right now is occupied by properly translating things I've said poorly and imagining how to say things that I might need to say in any given situation (example: haircut). I'm going to miss that, I think. I will also miss the almost daily ridiculous things that I inadvertently say in class. Recent gems include "Put your eyes on the table" (eyes are ojos; leaves (which we were working with) are hojas) and "Look! Look! Look at the dessert!" (I had a poster. They call posters laminados. Dessert, however, is postre.)

Not that I don't say ridiculous things in English, though.

6. I am leaving this Thursday to spend the weekend in San Pedro de Atacama in the north of Chile. Check out these random Flickr photos if you want to see what I'm in for. I am super excited.

I'll write again (and post pictures if I can find my camera cable) post-adventure, but otherwise... that's pretty much the news. One more day and then one more week of lil Chilean babies, one 30th birthday party, and then I'm home. Less than two weeks. I would say something sad and melodramatic here except that I'm so excited to see you all and be home for Christmas.