Two Months Down

No, but it's probably killing me.

The house is made of concrete, and during the day it is colder inside then out. My room gets no sun and is thus the coldest. My family jokingly calls it the morgue.
Other than a refrigerator and a range/oven, the only appliance in the kitchen is an electric kettle, which is used frequently throughout the day as my host family only drinks hot beverages during the cold months. We are heading into my second winter this year, and I have now been in Chile for two months.

May went by considerably quicker then April, no doubt due to the fact that I have some semblance of a routine now, though I have only had one entire Monday-through-Friday week of classes. Because the nights and mornings are often so unreasonably cold in the desert (it has been hanging around -5 centigrade lately) the last week of May saw a shift in the school schedules in Calama. Classes now begin at nine o'clock as opposed to eight, but the day still ends at five thirty. This means each class is five minutes shorter and the ridiculous twenty minute break in the morning has been cut in half. Thus my one "hour" class on Wednesday morning is only in reality forty minutes, and as such my partner teacher for that block has not had me come in. Next week there is a solid four days of testing that will not see me entering the school until Thursday at the earliest. Therefore, it is my intention to take a trip, though my destination is not yet known.

As the days now progress well into June, a great deal has been on my mind. Two months behind me has given me a lot to reflect on in-and-of-itself, but in addition, June is the month of my birth and will mark the first time I have celebrated a birthday outside of the United States. In fact, this year will be the first in which I have not celebrated my birthday with my family in Savannah since before I left home for college in 2005 (Anno Domini).

Two months is a long time, and I have six more to go before I return home. Two months is a long time and I am increasingly missing more and more about home. Looking at the list I made after the first month, there are some clear changes; for better and worse:
Family
Friends (though I now regularly Skype with everyone, so that helps)
My stupid gatito O'Malley (I'm sure he's still stupid. Probably even stupider.)
I can cross peanut butter off the list, since I now have two jars in my house (gracias a Dios)
Movies in English (Robin Hood comes out here next week and I will cut someone if it's dubbed.)
Chick Fil A (and they just came out with a spicy chicken sandwich too. Kahhhhhhhhhhn!)
Taco Bell (I found out there is a Taco Bell in the Antofagasta mall, but the menu is as foreign as you please, and I'm not strong enough yet to bear that disappointment)
Not having to wear shoes at all times
Daily workouts
Hamburgers
Summer

Two anecdotes to wrap things up.
The other day during the break at school, one of the teachers jokingly said the reason Nescafe (the powdered instant coffee drunk here since there is no real, drip coffee) got it's name is because it is a shortened form of "No es cafe."
That night at dinner I tried to tell Mena a joke in English. The joke goes,
"What did the man say when he walked into the bar?"
Punchline: "Ouch!"
Thus, I asked Mena, "Mena, what did the man say when he walked into the bar?"
Without missing a beat she replied,
"What man?"