First Chilean Birthday

Today is my twenty-fifth birthday, and my first one in Chile. It was nice and quiet.

This was technically taken yesterday, but I won't tell if you won't.

I slept in a little today, then prepared for the long-ish work day I have tomorrow. 

I did a trial run to the place I'll be working tomorrow. (For those of you who don't know, both Matt and I are working as contracted English teachers. We work for a company that sends us to different locations around the city to teach business English to adults in small groups, or sometimes just to individuals.) Since I often struggle with directions and have punctuality paranoia (I hate being late - I'm usually annoyingly early), I like to do trial runs to my locations so I can learn the route and time myself.

This is where I'll be working tomorrow:

That's the Titanium Tower. Up until a few years ago it was the tallest building in South America. The new tallest building in South America was built a couple blocks away from it. How rude!

It houses offices for different companies. I'm looking forward to checking out the inside. After that I went to work and picked up materials and walked home and did other boring things.

After that I came home for lunch/dinner.

We made lentil stew. I understand this might not look appetizing to all readers, but we like it.

Then Matt gave me some great presents.

Beautiful flowers

A new pan! The one at our apartment peeled teflon into our food. I'm pretty sure teflon is a carcinogen, or at least really gross and generally bad for you. This pan is super nice, and since I love to cook, I was very excited. Thanks, Matt!

An apron, because all my shirts are stained and I am guilty of not-so-stealthily wiping my hands on my pants.

These gifts might lead you to believe that I am a 1950s housewife. A 1950s, feminist, foul-mouthed, self-important blogging one, at least.

Then my roommates surprised me with this:

Anthology of Gabriela Mistal's poems. She's a Chilean feminist poet. It was a very thoughtful gift from a very thoughtful couple.

I'd like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. The facebook posts, emails, texts, and snapchats (below) really made my day. I appreciate it, and I'm glad to know that you haven't forgotten about me even though I'm a whole continent away.

Thanks, Killian and Sarah!

Thanks, Matt, who sent this to me from across the room!

Thanks for making me feel loved on my birthday, everybody. Hope you are all having a great July 21st. 

P.S. Matt kind of says hi!