Mi tostada estaba triste porque lo sabe qué pasará pronto (My toast was sad because he knows what will happen soon). 🙂  Tomorrow will mark the beginning of my third week in Chile.

Mi desayuno en ambos estilo de modo Chile y EEUU (My breakfast in both the style of Chile and the United States).  Saturday is my best day to do my graduate assistant work.  I’m enjoying a project right now were I am helping Dr. Sandmann upgrade her PowerPoint presentation with an effort to make it more “Zen” (i.e., more minimalist).  I started working and didn’t realize that it was almost 6pm.  So this is a combination breakfast lunch meal I made for myself.  Yummy!!  Now I feel more motivated to return to my work.  I look forward to what week three is going to bring relative to my experiences in Talca, Maule, Chile.  Next week is Independence Day and the University is closed for a week.  So no access to the biblioteca research participants, or that little cabin outside the library that has WiFi and outlets.  Sigh… I’ll just have to survive working from the house. 🙂  P.S.  It’s still very cold outside down here.

My greatest fear about coming to Chile was that I would have a difficult time adjusting to different food.  But fortunately, that has not been a problem for me.  I think that’s in large part because I’m a somewhat descent cook.  I have really become almost addicted to the pitted olives here.  I put them in all my salads and eat them for snacks.  This is the beautiful salad I made for dinner before my “clumsy gene” struck.  Yes, I am convinced that a clumsy gene exists in my hereditary pedigree.

For example, I trip over seemingly invisible objects, bump my head at the most geometrically impossible angles, and will spill a drink on my table with an amazing level of frequency.  I share all that to let you know that this is a pre-photo of my delicious salad today.  I was too embarrassed to take a picture of the post-salad victimization caused by my clumsy gene.  Me encanta pimenta negra en mi ensalada  (I love black pepper on my salad).  I didn’t realize I had opened the pour versus the sift spout on the black pepper bottle as I began to dress my salad.  That didn’t turn out well for me nor as pretty as the picture above.  Nevertheless, I giggled, shook my head at myself, and enjoyed my hot salad.  ¡Ándele! Vamos a comer. 😉

Christianity is the dominant religious form in Chile with almost 70% of Chileans being of the Catholic faith tradition.  Therefore, it is not uncommon to see religious representations displayed in homes as well as in  churches.  I found this piece interesting as I could not determine if it was made of wood or plastic.  I was too afraid to touch and inspect it too closely considering my “clumsy gene” and all. 🙂