Big Friday Night

Today is a big day for two reasons.
1.) It snowed last night for the first time in the streets of Futaleufu. My students were enchanted with the word "snow." They loved repeating it softly. Snowwww.
2.) I have big plans for my Friday evening. Yes, tonight is the Truco tournament. Truco is a card game typical of Patagonia that involves lots of lying, signs, and special chants. The first time I watched it I was completely lost. I've dedicated myself to learning how to play and last week I entered my first real game. With Fabian as my trusty partner (we've got all the signs down) and Eva and Trinidad, two other teachers, on the opposing team, we sat down to a serious game of Truco. Laughs were had, insults thrown, suspcious glances abounded. Best out of three games, and the matches used to keep score showed that we lost the third game by two points. Intense to say the least.
Tonight we meet again to pay off our bet of a bottle of wine and chocolate and to have a rematch. I'm stoked.
I've been extremely busy this week replacing the official English teacher in the district who has sick leave for 2 weeks and it has been... fantastic. Great to see new faces and meet new students, have a change of pace, and even great to feel mildly stressed. I would hate to say the laziness/ slow pace of the south had rubbed off me, but it is slightly contagious. Why rush if no one else is? I mean, the roads aren't even paved and I walk two blocks to work, how stressed can you be?
Yesterday I bought myself a fabulous snowsuit of sorts. I spied it at the "ropa americana" (I actually had been on the hunt for one of these puppies, I see people wearing them all the time here and they look so warm) and it's pastel pink. I seem to have bought it at the perfect time since it snowed last night. Today I donned my new gear and felt a bit like Barbie, but boy was I toasty.
I absolutely love my living situation with Eva. She is a firecracker. In the school she is notorious for being strict; she often complains that the principal doesn't know how to wear pants (a figure of speech, obviously) and that she always has to be the one to lay down the law (she's next in command). At home, however, it's a different story. Her sense of humor is dry, sharp, and ever-present. When Fabian came over after fixing his car, his jacket caked in dirt and his face smeared with grease, she claimed he dirtied himself on purpose so I'd think he actually works. She's learning English, slowly but surely, with our "lessons" in the house that consist of jokingly insulting each other.
The other night the electricity went out (it's been doing that a lot lately, nobody really knows why) and she and I huddled by the woodburning stove and went through some phonetics flash cards I have. One card had 4 words that start with "BR." She asked me what BRAIN means, so I pointed and she eventually guessed that it's cerebro. Not knowing its meaning either, she read the next word out loud: BROOM. "That's the sound your BRAIN makes when it explodes- BROOM!" She hooted in Spanish.
Yesterday I was at my computer and she came in, sat down on the couch, and asked me what my opinion is of men. Here we go I thought. What proceeded was an hour long conversation about fidelity, latinos, temptations, machismo, you name it. That woman sure can talk, and what she has to say drips humbly with wisdom and experience. She is stoic and joyful and I consider myself very lucky to have landed the living situation that I did.