I 
started noticing some interesting flora on my 
way home from school today, so I thought I might share a few photos with you. (I'd like to point out that the three photos side by side are actually of the same plant at different stages in its blooming.)
To go along with this post, I had a mildly amusing conversation over lunch that I thought might be worth sharing:
A teacher, Silvia, with whom I was chatting after class asked me just what I thought of Chile and Illapel. I told her for one that it's awfully cold here.
The 
winters get a lot colder up in Boston, but I'm not accustomed to not having heating. (This was carefully worded so as to not offend.) Interestingly enough, Silvia responded, people here don't want heating. Paulina, my host mother, had told me earlier that heating is something only for rich people. Silvia, however, told me that when she was preparing for her trip to Ireland with a few of the other English teachers this past summer (in the southern hemisphere, winter up in Ireland), people warned her to watch out for the heating. Apparently people here think that it is best to keep yourself at the same temperature as your environment because otherwise you will not be prepared for the weather, leaving you more susceptible to illness. I, on the other hand, come from a culture which teaches that, especially in cold weather, you want to stay in warm areas as much as possible to keep your body stronger and more able to handle the cold temperatures when you must face them. That's just one example of how fascinating I find it to see how different cultures might develop two entirely logical yet completely opposite responses to the same problem.
started noticing some interesting flora on my 
way home from school today, so I thought I might share a few photos with you. (I'd like to point out that the three photos side by side are actually of the same plant at different stages in its blooming.)
To go along with this post, I had a mildly amusing conversation over lunch that I thought might be worth sharing:
A teacher, Silvia, with whom I was chatting after class asked me just what I thought of Chile and Illapel. I told her for one that it's awfully cold here.
The 
winters get a lot colder up in Boston, but I'm not accustomed to not having heating. (This was carefully worded so as to not offend.) Interestingly enough, Silvia responded, people here don't want heating. Paulina, my host mother, had told me earlier that heating is something only for rich people. Silvia, however, told me that when she was preparing for her trip to Ireland with a few of the other English teachers this past summer (in the southern hemisphere, winter up in Ireland), people warned her to watch out for the heating. Apparently people here think that it is best to keep yourself at the same temperature as your environment because otherwise you will not be prepared for the weather, leaving you more susceptible to illness. I, on the other hand, come from a culture which teaches that, especially in cold weather, you want to stay in warm areas as much as possible to keep your body stronger and more able to handle the cold temperatures when you must face them. That's just one example of how fascinating I find it to see how different cultures might develop two entirely logical yet completely opposite responses to the same problem.
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