I apologize for not posting in a while. I’ve been busy but I’ve also been kind of lazy. The last post was about two weeks ago. Since then a lot of stuff has happened. A couple of days after my last post our group went to Pomaire, a small pottery town about 2 hours away from Vina. When I heard it was a pottery town I was anything but excited to go. When we got there however, it was actually pretty fun. There was a lot of handmade traditional indigenous pottery, ranging from kitchenware to decorative masks. I bought a couple of scary looking masks to decorate wherever I’ll be living when I get back (yeah, still don’t know—somewhere on campus, hopefully my own apartment). Oh, and the other thing is that everything was incredibly cheap! I was thinking that if I didn’t have to take a plane back with limited luggage I would buy as much stuff as I could and sell it on Craig’s List and make a killing. After looking around for a while, our group ate at this traditional Chilean restaurant where we had giant Chilean empanadas and then a feast of meat of all sorts (check out the photos). We then had a traditional Chilean dessert that I think is called “Mote de Huesillo”, a dehydrated peach that looks like a sheep brain surrounded in juice (I had a Physio. Lab last semester so I know what a sheep brain looks like) and at the bottom is a grainy wheat substance that I didn’t eat. We also got to try a hand at making pottery ourselves after a brief class—not my cup of tea.
The following week on Wednesday we all went to Santiago to watch Chile beat the crap out of Colombia in a partido de futbol (soccer game). That was fun. We all wore Chilean jerseys and shouted all the vulgar sayings that the Chileans did. On October 15th we are going to go see Chile vs. Argentina, their main rival, so I imagine that will be more intense.
This past weekend our group went to Santiago again to actually see the city. We left Vina really early Friday and went to a bunch of different places in the city. It was a pretty long, sightseeing day and in the evening we went to our hostel and then got some dinner at a pretty sweet restaurant.
Saturday, my birthday, we went to the general cemetery in Santiago, which was kind of a depressing way to start out my birthday, but we saw some famous peoples’ tombs—kind of boring. After the cemetery we saw one of the houses of Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet who was also a communist who had four rather eccentric houses in different parts of Chile. He died shortly after the military coup of 1973 and some of his Santiago house was destroyed by the military. The Chilean government later restored it and now three of his original four houses are on display.
There was a slight incident in the Subway in Santiago where someone in our group almost got robbed. As some lady was trying to reach into the person’s bag another Chilean lady tried to send out a warning via hand signals. The thief didn’t get anything, but she had her hand inside the person’s bag. As she got off the train several other Chilean women called her on it yelling at her “thief!, thief!," as well as some other choice words. The thief lady then ran back to the subway car and proceeded to wildly attack the ladies who called her out until everyone just pushed her out of the car just as the doors closed so she couldn’t come back in. The incident served as a reminder to always be alert.
When we got back to Vina another person on our trip realized that their host family’s house had been broken into and the person’s laptop and Ipod were gone. Fortunately nothing has happened to me yet (knocking on wood).
We got back to Vina Saturday evening and I went home to eat dinner and then I went out with the group to celebrate my birthday. I didn’t get back until five in the morning because that’s the way Chilean nightlife is.
Sunday I just slept in and enjoyed not having to do anything. The host family was gone at Paula’s family’s so I enjoyed having the house to myself. This week I only had class Monday and Tuesday because Thursday is the Chilean independence holiday (although I learned in my history class that the actual day that Chile became independent from Spain is February 12, it’s nonetheless celebrated in September as a Spring holiday). I’m excited for Thursday and Friday because I guess the typical Chilean asado (barbeque) is popular during these two days accompanied with traditional celebratory beverages.
This coming Saturday plans are being made to visit La Campana national park, which is just outside of Vina. It’s a mountain like place (not sure if it’s quite a mountain but the elevation is about a mile high at the high point). They have hiking paths and supposedly spectacular views.
Other than all that, just the usual—going to class, trying to get a better grasp of Spanish. I’m definitely getting better at understanding it but speaking without stuttering, pausing and thinking is still difficult, probably because I need to talk more. It’ s surprisingly easy to get by without having to talk a lot by just answering with brief replies. That needs to stop. It’s just that I’m a little shy when I speak in Spanish so my default is to say as little as possible.
That’s about it. You can still see photos via the “photo” link on my previous post. I’ve added more to that album and will continue to do so. Also, I enjoy hearing what’s going on with everyone else at home so feel free to write me. Everyone who knows this blog address has my email or is connected to facebook. Until next time!
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