Sunday, August 19, 2012

I'm in love.

This weekend was one that really has me just wanting to say thank you.  Thank you to my parents for helping me with everything I needed to do to get here, thank you to DU for having the Cherrington scholarship, thank you to my host family, I literally could go on here forever. I am falling more and more in love with Chile everyday. Okay, let's start on Friday...

Friday: Myself and the rest of gringos went to Valpo for the night. We started out with a previa at some Chilean's house, which was very interesting to say the least! Once we all got into the swing of intermingling with people in Spanish, it was very fun. Afterwards, we went to a discoteca called Bar Arena (Sand Bar), and danced the night away! In true gringo fashion, to top the night off, Laura, Nathan, Kassi, Gabi, and myself all made our way back to Viña for some papas fritas y hamburguesas at 5am at the local McDonalds. Yup, that's right, McDonalds. Enough said.

Saturday: a friend of mine from school invited me to cook dinner with him and his friends at one of their apartments! It ended up being the three Chilean boys, myself, and two French girls who also go to my school. The best part about the entire night, while also the most difficult part, was that our only common language was Spanish, so that is what we spoke the entire time. The boys ending up cooking most of the dinner, I helped a bit, but they were really the expert cocineros! We had curry chicken, rice, and a Chilean alcohol called pisco! The conversation, company, and food were all amazing.

Today was a great day spent with family. It's days like today that make me wonder why any student would come to Chile and not live with a host family. Every day that I spend with my host family continues to enrich my experience here exponentially.  They are so patient and loving, and really want me to see everything Chile has to offer! To start off our day, I woke up and heard what sounded like my whole family in my host parents bedroom.  When I open my bedroom door, I can see up some stairs into my parents room, and so this morning as soon as I got up I was greeted with yells to come up the stairs for something.  I then found out they had said to come up for breakfast, but since it was early, my spanish ears weren't functioning at full capacity quite yet. We then all proceeded to eat breakfast in my parents bedroom while watching Chilean cartoons, all the while stuffing our faces with fresh, warm bread straight from the oven of the panadería on the corner of our street and powdered sugar donut sticks (that's not what they're really called, but basically what they are).  After this delicious breakfast and bonding time, we got ourselves ready for the day and left for Laguna Verde! It was about a 40 minute drive through the steep hills of Valpo and then through the countryside, and after coming over a big hill, we saw it: Laguna Verde.  While it was not true to it's name in regards to being a green lagoon, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! Clear blue water, sandy beach, cute little town, the works. Once we made our way down into the valley of the town, we enjoyed almost two hours basking in the sun, playing in the sand, and just enjoying the beautiful day.  After that we found a cute little restaurant close to the beach where we had empanadas and machas con queso (clams with cheese). My host family had a good laugh when they realized I'd never eaten clams, due to the fact that instead of slurping the meat out like you're apparently supposed to, I used a fork and knife to get the meat out. Oh well. Así es la vida.

All in all, an excellent weekend spent with friends and family yet again. Below are some pictures from the weekend.

View of Valpo on the way to Laguna Verde


Looking down on Laguna Verde


Esme, Papá, Yo, y Coté

No comments:

Post a Comment