One Month Down

Ah yes, seems like so long ago...look at the beard.

Today, the 3rd of May in the Year of Our Lord 2010 marks the one month anniversary of my arrival in Chile.

Since touching down in Santiago that cool April morning, nearly everything in my life became new:
I made forty-some-odd new friends over a week of teacher orientation.
I have become an English as a Foreign Language teacher.
I am now the member of a new, Chilean family complete with brothers, sisters, cousins, two nephews (one born, one yet unborn.)
I now speak in Spanish as my primary daily language.
I attend, out of necessity, a Catholic church.
I eat raw onions.
I am no longer surprised by milk you don't refrigerate.
I now habitually throw away my toilet paper in bins.
I write almost a third of the time I am awake (the rest is spent studying Spanish and talking around the dinner table.)
I have ridden over twenty miles in a day on a bike through the world's driest desert.
I have ceased to be woken up at night by dogs barking.
I trimmed my ridiculous beard.

A month is a long time, and I have seven more to go before I return home. A month is a long time and I already miss so much about home:
Family
Friends
My stupid gatito O'Malley
Peanut Butter
Movies in English
Chick Fil A
*Taco Bell
Not having to wear shoes at all times
Daily workouts

Seven months from now, who knows what else will be different? God has played some very interesting hands since I left, throwing me into the desert for starters. I have already learned a lot, and I expect to learn even more about this world, my heart, and what God truly means when he asks us to be obedient and really on him for our every need. So far, so good. I have yet to go without in any serious aspect, and I fully trust that such will continue to be the case.

Now, let's see if I make it through May.

*One Friday night, Mena had her friends over to chat and hang out. She made "tacos" for them to eat. I became irrationally excited when I heard what was going on. You'd think I would have learned from the "gringo breakfast" incident in Santiago not to do that. You see, these "tacos" had familiar components: chicken, "Mexican" tortillas, and "taco" sauce. Of course, neither the tortillas nor the taco sauce were made in Mexico. Oh no, they were made in Santiago and tasted exactly like a bunch of Chileans who have only seen tacos in American movies might make if you gave them similar ingredients and a lot of leeway. Mena took the chicken and cooked it together with bags of mixed frozen veggies like you find in your grocers freezer section (corn, green beans, green peas, and carrots). No cheese. No sour cream. No taco seasoning. No lettuce.
I ate them, sure, but I cried with every bite wishing to all Heaven that what was in my mouth would magically assume the flavor of an 89 cent taco supreme from the Bell.