Vineyards of Santiago

Ahhh! So many new changes since the last blog. If you´re not up for a long one, I suggest you not continue reading! Saturday morning we visited a vineyard, where we got to see many old techniques of how they used to bottle wine, very interesting!  We also got to try three kinds of wine (yes mom and dad, it is legal to drink here!).  The first was a white that was delicious, the second and third were both reds. After the vineyard, we went to somewhere called Patio Bellavista for lunch, it was a big outdoor area with a lot of tiendas and restaurants, and ate lunch at a really good restaurant! As everyone knows from my first blogpost, I was very concerned about having to eat frijoles, but so far I have not even seen or smelled them anywhere! We were actually told that the food here is nothing like in other Latin American countries, and so far that has held true.  Most of what we have eaten is bread (LOTS OF BREAD, hello carbs), beef, chicken, and rice.  People here don´t really incorporate fruits, veggies, or water in their diets, so if you want it you really have to ask for it! Another interesting thing about food here... water is served in bottles at all of the restaurants. They have regular water and gassy water, but if you want regular water you have to ask for "agua sin gas". After lunch on Saturday, we walked to the famous poet Pablo Neruda's second home.  He has 2 others, in Valporaíso and la Isla Negra, which we will get to see later in our program if we wish to! It was one of the most interesting places. He was a big fan of everything having to do with the sea, so his house was really designed to look like a boat! Saturday night, a bunch of people from my program went to a bar/disco near our hotel in Santiago, called Zen, and it was so much fun. A lot of the locals were really interested in talking to us, girls and guys alike, mainly because they just weren´t used to seeing gringos at their local bar.  We all surprised ourselves with our spanish abilities, and we were able to get across what we needed to say in the conversations here! Something that is really annoying about several of the bars/restaurants here is that people are still allowed to smoke inside.  It has taken a lot of getting used to! My pulmones (lungs) have really been suffering whenever I`ve been inside places like that, and my clothes smell very bad. Thankfully laundry day with my familia is on Thursday, so I don´t have to wait much longer to have clean clothes! Speaking of my familia, I met them on Sunday!!! They are such great people. I have a family of 6, and I make 7. Mi mama is named Esmerelda (40), mi papa is named Marcos (48), mi hermana mayor is named Leslie (23, with a 4 yr old son), mi otra hermana is named Fransisca (21, nickname is pronounced like key-ka), mi hermana menor is named Maria Jose (17, nickname is Cote), and the little one is named Esmerelda (5). I haven´t met Leslie or her son yet, but everyone else has been so nice and helpful with me! Mi mama speaks very slowly for me, which I can imagine is very annoying for her, but has been nice for my understanding. I can hardly understand a word mi papa says though! He speaks extremely fast, and with chilean slang and cut-off words. He is incredibly nice, but I have a hard time having a conversation with him. Fransisca knows a couple of words in English, so whenever I am having a hard time understanding, I can usually ask for her help. Mi mama is very helpful, and makes me hot chocolate every morning! Which is MUCH appreciated considering the chilenos don´t have central heating at all. Besides central heating, another thing Chileans don´t have is the ability to flush toilet paper down the toilet! Nope, has to go in the trash can. Really sanitary and lovely. That has been VERY weird getting used to. This week we´ve mostly  just been doing legal stuff with registering our visas/passports in Viña del Mar, and getting to know the city a little better. School starts next week, and I`m excited to have something more to do here! Anyway, long post, I know, but I guess that´s what happens when I slack on the blog posts. Until next time, ciao po!