the three F's: Friends, Food and Fiestas Patrias

The culture shock finally seems to be wearing off and life is becoming more normal. I've come to accept the fact that I stand out, I'm going to be stared and I'm going to have an accent. Yet, I feel more like a Chilean everyday. I've made friends with the local Starbucks baristas, know the best bar to go to on Wednesday nights, have mastered public transportation and have a favorite local coffee shop that has the best chocolate cake. I even go to class in a truly Chilean fashion...meaning a majority of the time.

My friends Ali, Abby, Laine and I made the trek to Buenos Aires for four days to have the most random yet fun trip of our lives. First of all, we ate our way through the city. We managed to spend more on food than even our hostel. The best was a place called La Cabrera: we shared a bottle of red wine, salmon ceviche with ham and cheese, four steaks with over 12 different sauces/sides, along with a chocolate volcano, caramelized strawberries, a lemon champagne frozen smoothie and free glasses of champagne: all for about $25. After that we weren't sure we'd ever be satisfied with Chilean food again.

The hostel was rough but made the trip more interesting. We survived mostly by sleeping in our clothes, showering with our shoes on and drying our wet clothes (since there was no ceiling in the courtyard and it rained 3 out of the 4 days) on the roof w our makeshift clothesline, all while trying to avoid our neighbors across the street who we were pretty sure were living in some sort of crackhouse.

We saw Eva Peron's grave, visited el Ateneo, a theatre-converted-bookstore and went to the infamous San Telmo market on Sunday. We also managed to do a Pub Crawl. Our time spent sightseeing and familiarizing ourselves with the local cuisine gave us a taste of the city, and at least for me, made me realize that I need to go back.

Our trip ended with Abby being detained in customs for over an hour for not declaring an orange she'd brought back accidently. Just another funny, yet random setback. One thing is for sure, we will never forget BA.

The next day Fiestas Patrias (like our 4th of July) began. From Monday to Monday we did nothing but prepare, celebrate and recover from Fiestas Patrias. The entire city shut down from Thurs. to Sun. and most of our classes were cancelled. The celebration was especially crazy this year because of the fact that it was Chile's Bicentennial. The city honored the holiday with two nights of fireworks along the coast in Valparaiso and Vina. Sunday morning there was a boat parade in the harbor and an absolutely amazing air show. From our balcony, my family and I could see everything!

One aspect of South America I will never get over is the attitude people seem to have. Accept the minor flaws that you can't avoid and just enjoy. For a country that seems so disorganized at times, it's really a wise philosophy to live by. And a healthy one.

This is my life. I eat constantly, go to class-in spanish, walk everywhere, talk to Chileans, meet new Chileans, spend every waking moment with friends, spend hours practicing spanish with my host family and wonder how this can all possibly be real.

Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are beautiful. The life-style is slow, and everything is colorful. The people here are shy, but behind closed doors have nothing to hold back.They always make time to celebrate.

Family is a top priority, friends included. Anita, my Mama-Chilena brings me breakfast in bed almost everyday, we have 'once' (tea/coffee) with her friends and talk for hours when it's just the two of us. Her laugh is infectious and we usually find ourselves singing to the radio or sharing funny stories. Anita is clearly loved by all, for she always has friends over and her circle of friends is always expanding. My 25 year-old host-sister Fransisca is busy, she works in the trauma center at the Vina del Mar hospital and is gone for random hours at a time. She keeps to herself because she's either exhausted from working or studying for her residency exams. My Papa-Chileno Gonzalo works around 12 hours a day but is the happiest person on the planet. He always has Mondays off so we celebrate every week by drinking Pisco Sour and Chilean wine followed by a gourmet meal. He works as a chef part time, needless to say I'm spoiled.

As a group we've been lucky enough to go on a few excursions. We've been to two of Pablo Neruda's (a famous Chilean poet) houses, la Isla Negra and la Sebastiana. Both beautiful. Last Saturday we went to Curacavi, Pomaire and La Isla Negra. We took a tour of a chocolate factory and sampled over 12 different kinds of chocolate...my kind of tour. Better yet, there's still a lot to look forward to: next month we'll take a tour of Santiago, and La Serena in November. Not to mention my dad and Uncle Jeff's visit/ trip to Santiago to see Dave Matthews in October!

As of now I'm getting excited for my trip to Buenos Aires this weekend! I can't WAIT to see one of my best friends, Natalie, and live as a crazy Argentinian for a few days. More updates to come. For everyone at home: love and miss you all.