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I\u2019ve started to think of my cerro<\/em>, or hill, as home base. Recreo<\/em> is a quaint residential neighborhood between the downtown centers of Vi\u00f1a del Mar and Valpara\u00edso. Each weekday, I leave my house around 9:15am to meet my friends at the bottom of my cer<\/em>ro<\/em>, at the Recreo metro stop. This metro stop just so happens to be on the coast of the Pacific Ocean and is conveniently two stops away from both downtown Vi\u00f1a and the university in Valpo. There is something soothing about my commute: as I walk down the same winding road, I have started to notice the numerous ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/files\/2019\/10\/recreo-sunset-300x227.png\")
varieties of flowers local to the area. One house on my route has no one, but four golden retrievers whose barks I\u2019ve come to expect as I turn the corner. While I wait for the metro with my friends, I can hear the crashing of waves, and if we are coming back at sunset, we go down the steps to the abandoned dock to watch the sky change color.<\/p>\nAside from the neighborhood, so much of what has made Recreo feel like home has been my host family\u2019s warm welcome. They have done everything to make me feel like part of the family: my host mom\u2019s almuerzos<\/em> are always such delicious, homemade meals, and my host family threw me a surprise party for my birthday, despite only having known me for a couple weeks! I wasn\u2019t really expecting to do anything to celebrate, and right as I was starting to get bummed out about it, my host mom called me downstairs. We had completos <\/em>(left), <\/em>and a guarana<\/em>-flavored cake. Completos<\/em> are the Chilean version of hot dogs, topped with avocado, salsa, and lots and lots of mayonnaise. Though I enjoyed my completo<\/em>, I don\u2019t know how often I will be having them\u2014I\u2019m not a huge mayonesa<\/em> person. It was such a sweet gesture from my host parents, and I really am starting to feel comfortable in my Chilean home.<\/p>\n Furthermore, my host sister, Antonia, is the cutest three-and-a-half-year-old I have ever met. I practice using new verb tenses on her: if I get a confused look, I know that what I\u2019ve said doesn\u2019t make sense. She\u2019s the only person in my family that I am sure will let me know if I say something incorrectly! Antonia has also, unknowingly, taught me many command verbs. When she wants to play with Snapchat filters on my phone, I hear \u201c\u00a1D\u00e1melo! \u00a1D\u00e1melo!\u201d. When she wants more attention, it\u2019s \u201c\u00a1m\u00edrame! \u00a1m\u00edrame!\u201d. When my host father tries to serve her vegetables, he receives an emphatic \u201c\u00a1vete!\u201d. When I go downstairs each morning, she is already speaking what seems like rapid-fire Spanish to my tired ears, reminding me that the idea of full immersion is not to be taken lightly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve started to think of my cerro, or hill, as home base. Recreo is a quaint residential neighborhood between the downtown centers of Vi\u00f1a del Mar and Valpara\u00edso. Each weekday, I leave my house around 9:15am to meet my friends at the bottom of my cerro, at the Recreo metro stop. This metro stop … Continue reading Week 2: Mi Cerro<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28953,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chile","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/files\/2019\/10\/recreo-ocean-300x219.png\")
My block has the cutest panaderia<\/em>, or corner bakery, which I\u2019ve gotten in the habit of visiting on my way back from classes. I don\u2019t know the names of many of the desserts, so I usually just ask the sweet old lady who works there to give me her favorite! Maybe if I try all of the desserts, I will learn the names\u2026<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/files\/2019\/10\/pana-300x164.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2019\/files\/2019\/10\/completo-300x225.png\")
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<\/p>\n