What am I up to?

Now here I am, sitting on my bed, putting down my stories. The house is like a guesthouse, yet everybody living here is living here on a longterm basis. Although I was told I am still not sure about how many people live here and what their names are. Please do not blame me, it is my second day in Puerto Varas and I had to work 10hours each day...We have to ovens fired with would-that is it when it comes down to heating. That is why all of us are running around in sweaters and shoes, drinking loads of tea. I think I already got used to it yet I am sometimes asking myself why I left that nice summer of the nothern hemisphere to come to a place where it rains more than in Hamburg with an average 8 degrees. This is obviously not meant serious but getting out of bed in the mornings knowing that even the bathroom with the shower is not necessarily warm is really not the easiest exercise. The people around me here are all nice: Chilean, French, and one more German. But here comes my biggest struggle that is giving me a really rough time: conversations are done in Spanish. It is really tough. Speaking the castellano you learn at uni is hard enough but listening to Chileans taking faster than the concorde flies and mumbling at the same time is one of the biggest challenges I have been facing. It is a little bit like back in the time I came to the States as an exchange student not being able to speak on word in English.

Private conversations is one thing. The other is using Spanish at work. There are a few people capable of the German language but it is obviously not very welcomed to speak in German. Thus, I am more or less forced to communicate in Spanish which is good on the one hand but it does not make things easier. During my first two days I studied a lot about Chile, its sights, and Protours, my new employer. A lot of information has only been available in Spanish which was ok to read. So I guess I do have a good basis but as mentioned before: speaking and listening to a foreign language which is "new" is really tough. But I am positive that I will manage. Everything else at work is fine and I am excited for what is waiting for me...

I think I have written enough for today and everybody who wanted to is up-to-date now. We are going out tonight to learn some Salsa and of course I will have one of those nice South American Pisco Sours. Maybe it is gonna be easier after one or two to get that Salsa going (which I have never danced before). We will see...