In January I went up to Vilches twice. The first time was just for fun because Lia (Santiago volunteer) was in Vilches for a few days so I decided to go up too since she didn’t have much time left in Chile. We had a great time hiking, swimming in the river and just hanging out. The second time I went up to Vilches was to help at La Leona which is a project of Domodungu. La Leona consists of multiple cabins, a garden, and a meeting room. In the summer they open an artisan stand and serve tea, coffee and kuchen. While I was there I hoped mostly with the artisan stand and serving the guests who came for a treat. Some days were really busy and others days were really slow. I was told the business should pick up in February so hopefully it does. It was nice to escape to Vilches for awhile, help around La Leona and relax when we weren’t busy.
In January there is a festival in Santiago called “Santiago A Mil” where they have lots of theater and arts events that are very cheap to attend. A couple events came to Talca and I was able to go see one of them. It was really cool! First these three giant “dolls” came rolling through the crowd and entertained for a bit… then came a bunch of drummers who eventually were suspended really high into the air and there was a trapeze artist who performed (also suspended high above the crowd).
A couple weeks ago I got my Chilean Identification card. We were required to apply for them after getting our Visas. The whole process was quite interesting and frustrating at points. The worst of it was when I went to pick up my card (for the second time b/c the first time I went it wasn’t ready yet) I was told that it still wasn’t there and that for some reason my information wasn’t in the system so I waited… and waited… and waited… about 1.5 hrs later I was told that all my papers had been lost and that I should come back on Monday morning at 8:30 am to re-do my application. That news did not make me very happy but nevertheless I went back on Monday morning with all my photocopies and paperwork only to be told that my ID card was in fact there!! Given the date of emission on the card, I’d say it was there before and the people who told me that everything had been lost really didn’t have a clue what they were talking about!
Since mail seems to move like molasses when coming to Chile, I continued to receive many Christmas cards and some Christmas packages over the past month :D Even though everything was late it was fun to spread out the Christmas cheer a little longer.
My new favorite food is “porotos con masamorra” (white beans in a corn and squash “sauce”). Other tasty summer foods include hummitas (like tomales but made only with corn and onion… eaten with either tomato or sugar) and pastel de choclo (casserole made with meat, onion, hard boiled egg and creamed corn) … if you notice all these foods include corn… it’s corn season so we eat lots of it!
The last week on January I went on a trip with Kym to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Uruguay. It was a great trip and we saw a ton. While in Buenos Aires we saw a ton of sites including (but not limited to): La Casa Rosada (think White House but pink), The National Art Museum, The Recoleta Cultural Center, The Recoleta Cemetery, Several churches/basilicas/cathedrals, La Boca Neighborhood, the Defensa Sunday Market, the Botanical Garden and a Tango show. I really enjoyed exploring Buenos Aires but the only bad thing was the heat and humidity! When we landed it was in the 90s with 75% humidity and I believe it stayed that way for our whole trip! Talca has been hot but it’s nothing compared to Buenos Aires! Another great thing about Buenos Aires was the food. There are tons of little Italian restaurants with the most amazing food! There were lots of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires and for that reason they have really good Italian food. To get to Uruguay you just have to take a boat across the river. It was really easy and I’m glad we went! We didn’t spend much time in Uruguay but it was definitely worth it! First we went to Montevideo where we wandered around looking at different plazas, the ocean, etc and then spent about 5 hours at the Carnival parade (which still had at least an hour left when we decided to leave). The next morning we spent time at an artisan market before heading to Punta del Diablo which is a cute little beach/fishing town. We really enjoyed the change of scenery from a big city to the little ocean town :D
I’ve been spending lots of time with my host family and their extended family. It’s been fun getting to know more of the family and other friends. I’ve also spent time with Kym and a few other friends going to the Saturday markets, hanging out and going out for Happy Hour.
Even though Domodungu is not technically open at the moment I have still been going with others to work on the mosaic. I just finished putting down all my tiles so I’m very excited but I still need to fill in all the cracks… unfortunately I don’t think we will be done for March 8th like we were hoping… there is still a ton left to do and only a month left. I personally won’t be around much due to travelling with mom and dad and then going to Ecuador.
Below are lots of photos: La Leona and Vilches (3), food (3), Santiago A Mil (2), Buenos Aires (4), Uruguay (5) and Family time (2).
