Get ready Miss Reddy...

...was the title of the email I just got from Chris. Funny that he should send it right after I got lunch with my childhood best friend whose major is Speech Language Pathology, to which I remarked, "I can't handle lisps" (I understand that it is not the speaker's fault, and also that it makes me a jerk, but they still annoy me)

"On language here:

Pues, Chilenos no les gusta usar 's'. Yo no se porque, me gusta la letra mucha! Por ejemplo: "Si pues, me gusta la letra" en Chile es "Si pu me guta la letra." Imagine somebody with a lot of spit in their mouth, or someone who speaks with a slight lisp, or as if they can't move their bottom lip all that much.

Tambien, hay muchas palabras de slang Chileno. Si un evento es aborrado, en Chile no es aborrado, pero es fume. Hay muchas MUCHAS palabras como eso, pero necesitas hablar con jovenes si quieres conocer.

I'm not ruining anything else for you Mollicious! The more surprises, the more you learn, the more you learn, the better!

I can't wait to see you sometime and somewhere in South America mi amorrrrrr!

Chris."

Also check out his photo a day

Enough about me. Let's talk about my blog.

Does anyone else feel super geeky referring to their blog (or someone else's) in conversation? I generally don't (because I suppose that's the whole point), but I do a bit when I'm inclined to say, "Eh, I could tell you the story, but maybe you should just read it in my blog."

And I'm off...in February

"If you don't come out of S. America engaged I won't get the 3 marriages that I need to be legit. No pressure or anything."

-Anonymous, referring to his need to officiate my wedding in order to beef up his wedding officiator resume and legitimize his online accreditation.

______________________________________________________________

DEPART

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Depart: OHare International, Chicago, IL, US (ORD) @ 5:45pm
Arrive: Metropolitan Area, Miami, FL, US (MIA) @ 9:45pm

<< CONNECTION >>

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Depart: Metropolitan Area, Miami, FL, US (MIA) @ 11:25pm
Arrive: Arturo Merino Benitez, Santiago, CL (SCL) @ 9:50am
Thursday, February 12, 2009

RETURN

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Depart: Arturo Merino Benitez, Santiago, CL (SCL) @ 9:10pm
Arrive: Dallas/Ft Worth Intl, Dallas, TX, US (DFW) @ 6:10am
Thursday, July 2, 2009

<< CONNECTION >>

Nonstop Thursday, July 2, 2009
Depart: Dallas/Ft Worth Intl, Dallas, TX, US (DFW) @ 8:00am
Arrive: OHare International, Chicago, IL, US (ORD) @ 10:15am

July 3rd: Matt-Kristen rehearsal dinner, where I will practice my greeting skillz
July 4th: Happy Birthday America! Happy Wedding Cousin Kristen and Matt!
Somewhere during July 7-10th: Hopping a plane back south to Colombia for the rest of the summer, if everything goes as planned :)

I'm a big fan

of Takeaway Shows!

"My parting bit of advice..."

This is how my community journalism professor ended class today:

"You know guys, the secret to figuring out women is details, there you have it, that's all you ever need to know. Listen to the details. The little grocery shopping list, to you: not a big deal, to her: when you forget that shopping list you're saying 'It's not important to me, and I don't value you.' So what you should do is say: 'Honey, could we go over that grocery list one more time?'"

He was pretty right on with the details part...I would say a bit over the top on the grocery list part, but maybe I'll feel different in ten years?

Whelmed

"I know you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed, but can you ever be just whelmed?"

..."I think you can in Europe"

-10 Things I Hate About You

I had my study abroad orientation for Santiago, Chile today. I leave mid-February, but I would definitely say I'm feeling just whelmed. I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes (I know I'm a jerk) while people asked questions like: "How dangerous is it exactly?" " You're positive we can drink the water there?" and "I've heard that women in Chile dress much more conservatively than American women, how should we dress?"

Before leaving for Colombia I was in a constant state of such intense feelings. Excited, worried, feeling totally uninformed, losing sleep etc. Some days I felt as if I was willingly walking towards a death sentence, while many around me confirmed this with cute comments like: "Don't get abducted by the FARC, watch out for the cocaine, etc."

I'm feeling totally safe and secure going to Chile, and as a result I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it. I know that once I'm there I will be extremely excited to once again be surrounded by Latin culture, and I'm sure I will quickly feel at home.

I guess for now though, I'm just feeling whelmed...I guess also proving to be the exception to the rule from above as I'm located in Wisconsin, not Europe.

"You know Molly, I've come to find that it is impossible to always be both effective and ideologically pure."
-A smart professor of mine, delivering sad news on 11/21/08