Concepcion and a New Family

Yesterday we left for Concepcion around noon and had a six hour bus drive. I just slept the whole time and tried to catch up on reading. Around 7:00 we arrived in a neighborhood here in Concepcion where our families were waiting. Ify Bell and I found our student, Yolanda, and drove back to their house before dinner. It's a very comfortable house in a safe neighborhood where her brother also lives. They have two dogs, Bruna and Joe, which I love to come back and give at least a little attention to when I can. I miss my dogs back in Dayton! We had a quick dinner of bread and pasta with homemade meat sauce. I was glad that I felt comfortable and that dinner was informal. We had ice cream, then watched some TV and got to know Yolanda a little bit more as well as her dad when he stopped by. Ify went to bed after talking to her kids, and I stayed up and chatted some more before going to a neighbor's house to celebrate his birthday with friends. It was a lot of listening to Spanish and I picked up very little, but it was good to do that I think. I didn't speak at all, but I should have. We came back and I was in bed by 1:00.

Today, we started classes at the UDD campus here. We had two speakers and then had a giant cafeteria lunch of rice and chicken, plus a million sides, then a few of us took a walk around the block until the bus came to pick us up to take us to the mines. We got to wear hard hats with the little lights, much to our amusement, and took about ten thousand pictures. We then set off for the mines, which haven't been actually used in over a decade (it's now just a tourist attraction. I think they said that the mine we saw was a fake mine that they rebuilt for the tours, but I could be wrong. Either way, they were very realistic). It started with a little tiny cage that four of us squeezed into, then we were brought down under sea level. It was chilly, but a relief from the hot weather! We spent over an hour under there walking around while an ex-miner talked about what was done and the hardships and dangers of having such a career. We could tell that they were much shorter than us, like him, because half the time we were ducking. We even had to crouch down to about 3 feet at one point in a little wet tunnel, and by that time we were all ready to be done. It was very interesting, but never have I been so grateful to be back on the bus!

Afterwards, we drove past the old houses that were provided for miners and their families. We were just distracted because there was this GIANT barrelling forest fire literally right outside of our bus! Our tour guide was saying something like "on your left, you will find...." but the entire group was piled against the right side with cameras flashing. I got a few good pictures, with people standing around nonchalantly. I guess they are used to these fires because people set them in the summers intentionally (a speaker said that sometimes kids set them because they like to see the firetrucks and helicopters, and also sometimes a person will be angry that they weren't allowed to be sold the land for farming, so they will set fire to it). We got to the mining museum and were greeted by the smell of smoke and ashes floating down when we got off the bus. Some people were complaining, but I was just amused that no one else other than us paid any attention to the fact that this fire was occuring within arm's reach.

After the museum, we went to a gorgeous park right on the same street. There was a view of the fishing boats on the coast, mixed with the smokey air; it made a great picture. I mainly took pictures of all the flowers, so those will explain the rest of what we saw in the park.

We got home late, and Yolanda and her dad took Ify and I out for some really good pizza. I practiced some Spanish words while we were waiting on our food, so that made me feel a little better since I haven't been speaking. We then went to Tina's home stay condo to have a get-together with a majority of the other students and their buddies. There were drinks and I didn't have much, but everyone had a good time. One guy on our trip tried to catch a ping-pong ball but slid on the floor and smashed his hand on broken glass on the floor, then bled everywhere. He was fine, but we were concerned at the time that he would need stitches. We left around 1 and I was so happy to see my bed waiting for me back at "home".