Updates

Wow! It's been awhile! I know! I'm sorry, I've really been slacking. Things have been busy around here! Now that there's a break in the madness, here's a quick update on what has been going on the past couple of weeks.

After getting back from Mendoza, it was back to normal Viña life for the next couple of weeks! Or so I thought... that first week was also the birthday week of my friend Katie, and naturally we had to celebrate!  After our class together on that Wednesday night, we went to Katie's house, had cake and coffee, got dolled up, and went to Café Journal like any reasonable Gringas would do. Plus Katie had never been on a Wednesday night, the most popular night, so it was yet another reason to go! Once we got there, we made it upstairs and ordered some drinks and a pizza! We had no idea what the pizza there would be like, especially since we have yet to find exceptional (or even half edible) pizza here, but we were very happily surprised to find that it was delicious!  However, even better than the delicious pizza in front of us was the table full of 20-30 good looking military men to our right. We couldn't decide if they were Chilean or not... they dressed a little swankier than Chileans, and just had a different look (one that we definitely weren't complaining about), so we came to the conclusion that they were not local. When they came to talk to us a little later, we were correct! Turns out that that upcoming weekend, there was a sailing competition in Viña, and there were teams from Columbia, Brazil, Italy, Chile, and more competing! Our new friends were from Columbia and Italy.  We weren't upset about it. At all. They wanted to dance, but since it really wasn't the time or place, they invited us to Ovo, a discoteca in the casino the following night! Fast forward 21ish hours, and we had just finished getting ready and were off for the night, looking quite fierce I might add! Most of our new friends were from the Italian sailing team, and that's who we ended up spending most of the time with at the discoteca.  Overall a really fun night of dancing and continuing the birthday celebration!

Lindsey and I ready for Bday action.

The birthday crew!

Also during this week, a care package from my Mom came in! Woot woot! I was SO excited. Peanut butter, Bath and Body Works lotions and soap, Nilla Wafers, and gum to name a couple of things.  If you want to see what my reaction was really like, see this link: http://thetimeistudiedabroad.tumblr.com/post/22995244130/when-someone-sends-me-a-care-package

That Saturday was also an excursion with my program, ISA, as well as the birthday party for my little host sister! Our ISA excursion took us to Con Con, Horcón, as well as a couple of other small stops along the coast. I had already been to all of the places they took us, but it was still a fun day with all of the ISA crew! Then when I got back to my house, my host family was just about to start the festivities for Esme's birthday! There were decorations everywhere in the house, with loads of candy and delicious things covering the table.  I had made chocolate chip cookies the night prior for the party, but since I left them out on the dining table that night and the day leading up to the party, they were all gone by the time it was party time! Oh well, at least someone enjoyed them! The party was really fun, we listened to Esme's favorite Disney singer on repeat (if I never hear the name "Violetta" again I wouldn't be sad), ate the most delicious cake ever, and had good quality time with family.

Esme blowing out her candles, 6 years old!

Geneva and I on the ISA excursion.

In other news, starting right after I got back from Mendoza, the weather FINALLY has started to actually feel like Spring! The sun has been out, the trees are green, the flowers are blooming, and it has been in the solid high 60's to low 70's for the past 2 or 3 weeks. Minus one or two days of rain. But I am not at ALL complaining. Also my computer charger decided to die last week, so that was unfortunate. The only way I could get it to work was if it was plugged into the outlet in our house's dining room, with the computer sitting on the table, and when the charger was plugged in, the cord had to be elevated or else it wouldn't charge. To fix this, I put our mayonnaise bottle underneath the cord to keep it up. Worked like a charm. First useful thing I've found in mayo since I've been here! Thankfully, my PARENTS are now here, so they were able to bring me a new charger! Yes yes, I know I can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet, but my parents are currently here visiting me for 13 days! Best thing ever. It's been so amazing having them here. But their trip description will be for the next blog post, I promise there are good things coming. Sneak peak, my parents met my host family, and Poppa Swigs thought that he knew some Spanish... turns out the words he knows don't quite mean what he thought they meant! Whoops! On that crazy cliff hanger (I know, I should really write a novel), until next time!