September 18th: this is Chile’s 4th of July and it’s a BIG celebration! In reality the celebrations go on pretty much all week at different community centers, churches, etc and on the 18th is a day to celebrate with family. We went over to an “aunt and uncle’s” house and helped make empanadas. And then spent the rest of the day until after midnight eating and talking. Unfortunately nobody danced cueca (the traditional dance) but there was plenty of cueca music blaring from the surrounding houses. At this point the parents went home and I went with Evelyn to visit a friend whose birthday is the 18th. After visiting with her and her family we all went out to a dance (we got there around 3am) and stayed there for a couple hours. Some of my neighbors were in the band that played at the dance so it’s always fun to go see them play.
24th Birthday: For my birthday I invited friends over for “onces” and cake. Here in Chile they generally have onces instead of a full dinner. This usually consists of bread (good and lots of it!) with jam/cheese/deli meat/ butter/ avocado/etc plus something sweet like cookies or cake and tea. It was a relaxed night but it was perfect. I got to share my birthday with the friends and family that have been most important to me so far on my journey in Chile.
Laura Visits Chile: In November Laura came to visit me in Chile :D She spent almost 3 weeks here and the time flew by! First we went to Viña del Mar and Valparaiso for a few days and had a great time wandering through the colorful hills of Valparaiso, chilling on the beach in Viña and sandboarding just up the coast in a town called Con Con. Then we went to Talca and Laura got to spend lots of time following me around to Domodungu, the orphanage, the tennis courts and Vilches. We really confused a lot of people this week, it was funny! The next stop on our trip was Easter Island!! It was really cool to be there and we explored the Island by bike, 4 x 4, horse and by foot. There were tons of Maoi (the big head statues) all over the island and it was great to learn the history behind everything. The whole island was very calm, the people were friendly and it was a lot more peaceful than I expected. It probably helped that it wasn’t peak tourist season. We also went to a traditional dance show, ate great tuna empanadas (fresh tuna) and enjoyed a little snorkeling. After Easter Island we toured around Santiago and saw all the sights it has to offer.
Christmas: Christmas was spent in family. All five of us were home so that was great. We had a really great barbeque for dinner (around 11pm) and opened gifts sometime after midnight. Then we went to a family secret santa exchange and after spending a long time chatting over wine and snacks we got home around 4:15 am.
New Year’s: For New Year’s I decided to go to Viña del Mar/Valparaiso because I had always heard that it is THE place to spend New Year’s. I went up on Friday unsure that I would actually make it because I only had a bus ticket to Santiago and then had to try and find a ticket somewhere close to Viña del Mar. I was lucky and got a bus to a nearby town only 1.5 hrs after I got to Santiago so I was very relieved. When I had purchased my ticket to Santiago the day before I was told that pretty much everything north of Santiago was completely booked which made me worried! After a little lunch and checking into my hostel I headed to the beach and spent the late afternoon there just relaxing and reading a book. On Saturday I slept in and prepared for New Year’s by busing some silly string and other such necessary items for the evening. I relaxed a bunch in the hostel preparing for the long night ahead of me and around 8pm I left the hostel to go meet up with a friend in Valparaiso where a lot of the action is. In the end my friend’s phone died right as I went to meet her and it was impossible to find her in a huge plaza full of people so I enjoyed the live music in the plaza for a while and then went to the best lookout I knew of to watch the fireworks. There I met a really nice grandma and her granddaughters so I chatted with them until the fireworks started. They shared sparkling wine and grapes (a Chilean tradition to bring good luck for the New Year) with me at midnight. The grandmother and the little granddaughter then went home but I stayed with the older 2 granddaughters and 2 cousins that were sitting next to us for the fireworks and we all headed down to the big plaza again and danced until the music stopped around 330 am. Our next stop was a party that one of my friends was having not too far away and then we finished the night in a nice bar that was pretty much empty (a nice break from the hordes of people in the plaza, streets, and all over in general). After a long but very fun night we took the bus back to Viña and I got to my hostel around 7:15 am. All in all it was a great New Year’s even though my original plan of meeting up with a friend totally failed!! I am very glad that I made the last minute, impulsive decision to spend New Year’s in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso :D
Domodungu: Things at Domodungu are all over, well workshops are anyway. We are still working doing evaluations and other end of the year things but it’s not as crazy as it had been. All the final events such as presentations for guitar, choir, painting and theater went well. There was a dance which was a lot of fun too. There were not a ton of people that actually came but the people who did show up sure had a good time!
Hiking: A couple weeks ago I went on a weekend hiking trip with my friend Sarah. We went up to Vilches and hiked to El Enladrillado and La Laguna del Alto. El Enladrillado is supposedly a UFO landing sight. Believe what you want… the Laguna del Alto is a lagoon at the bottom of a crater. We camped by the lagoon and had a good time. It was quite the hike and for me the most intense part was the hike back because it was mostly downhill and quite steep… needless to say my calves hurt for various days later! It was all very pretty and I really enjoyed the weekend!
Brazil: January 20th I will be leaving for a workshop in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I am going with 2 others from Domodungu and one other young lady from Talca. We have been busy getting stuff ready, confirming travel plans, etc. It is a 3 week course and we are all very excited to be going! I will update more about all my adventures there when I get back in mid-February.
Well, that's all for now folks... I will update again when I get back from Brazil. Happy 2012 Everyone!!!
