Las Fiestas Patrias!

Hola todos!! Como estan?

All of the craziness is finally wrapping up for the weekend. Its been a pretty packed and fun-filled time to say the least! Here's a little overview of what I've been up to:

Thursday - After school I headed back towards home because I needed to pick up my Chilean ID before 2pm. Then, I met two girlfriends at a little bar/restaurant near our houses to have lunch and start celebrating the holiday with a few drinks. Oddly enough, my host family had the same idea because we ran into them there! But they just said hello and left me to hang out with my friends. Then, it was back to the house to start preparing myself for the evenings activities: a light show at the government palace ("La Moneda") and parties afterwards. So, we all met up with a group of Chileans and started walking towards the light show. And right around that time began one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. All I have to say is: MOB SCENE. Before things got really crazy my whole group and I had been lead into the middle of the square. Before we knew it, people we're shoving and pushing and crushing against each other like sardines. And trust me, I've done NYE in Times Square so I know what its like to shove a ton of people in one area. But this was different- there was absolutely no crowd control. People were being robbed (two girls in my group), others were hyperventilating and having panic attacks, and children/elderly men and women were being suffocated and crushed by the sheer mass of people. So, after about 20 minutes of trying to stick it out in the crowd it just became too unbearable and we all decided to get the heck out of there. Which took another 20 minutes in itself because we had to fight againist everyone else who was frantically trying to leave and also against the people trying to force their way into the crowd. So, anyways, luckily everyone made it out fine and un-hurt but we had NO interest in staying there after that experience so we all left. We ended up going to a fire station (random, I know) and hanging out there for the rest of the night. The group of Chileans that we were introduced to through the university is apparently a group of volunteer fire-fighters. So we played games, drank, danced and had a great time partying with them until the early morning hours. I also made friends with a few of the guys and they offered to take my friends and I to una fonda (basically a type of huge fair that they put on here during the holidays) the next day.

Friday- My friends Nathalie, Sara, Marco and I met up with a group of Chileans: Sebastian, Cristobal, Pablo and Miguel and they took us to una fonda in Parque O' Higgins (one of the biggest and most popular parks in Santiago). There, we got to see all kinds of dancing, listen to folk music and try new foods and drinks. I was mostly into trying the drinks this weekend since most of the meals revolve around meat and I'm not a big meat eater to say the least :) Let me tell you all the new drinks I've tried:
Jote- red wine mixed with coca-cola
Teremoto- white wine mixed with fruit flavored ice cream
Chicha- fruit cider made from grapes or apples
Mote con huesillos- peach juice, with whole peaches that have been boiled and dried, mixed with cooked barley
and of course . . . Piscola!
After the fonda we all went to a bar and hung out for a while before we all headed home for the evening.

Saturday- Left for a family lunch around 1:30. And I finally got to try pastel de choclo! And homemade sopaipilla and pebre, yumm! And no holiday is complete without the famous chilean cake: torta mil hojas, which is seriously one of the most delicious desserts I've ever had. Its basically like putting marshmellow icing on top of caramel filled baklava. At least that is my take on it. You can see the recipe here: http://kitchenlife.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/torta-mil-hojas/. So anyways, after lunch we all hung out talking, drinking and eating some more until about 6:30 when my friend Kirsten and I decided to go into the city and meet some friends for a drink or two. We ended up going to Bellavista and found a nice little restaurant with outside tables so we could keep up with everything on the streets. Although, it wasn't half as busy as it would normally be because half of Santiago left town to celebrate the holidays at the beach or elsewhere. But it was quite an entertaining time. I was pretty tired from all my partying and drinking though, so I headed home around 10 and relaxed until I feel asleep.

Sunday- Got woken up by my host mom at 10:30 with hardly enough time to shower or get ready before we were off to our next activity: an asado near Pomaire (almost an hour and 30 min away). But first we had to go and pick up the rest of the family. Needless to say: more drinking, eating and talking. And luckily, I was able to catch a ride home early because I've got a pile of homework I haven't touched yet. And my family is still partying the night away! They didn't come home until 2am yesterday so no telling when they'll be home today.

Overall I've really enjoyed the holiday experience here. Its been nice to meet new people and try new foods/drinks. Although, I've been experiencing a little bit of homesickness. Being around this big family all the time and not really being able to participate actively in the conversations or know anything about their history- it makes me miss holdays at home and even speaking my own language! I'm also experiencing a little bit of annoyance with my Chilean family because of cultural reasons. The two biggest things that bother me here: time and noise. When I say time, I mean "chilean time," which means they never give me a true idea of when I'll be leaving or returning from some activity. Which is frustrating when I tell my host mom I have a test the next day and she takes me out until 11pm and doesn't think twice about my having to study. Then, there is the noise issue. My host family is so loud, especially at night and early in the morning. And my room is near the two biggest hangout areas: the computer room and the kitchen. For some reason it is okay here to yell, laugh and whatever else right outside my bedroom door and in the hallway near my room, etc. Its been affecting my sleep and its really freaking annoying. I also have no fan or no other means of blocking the noise because literally, my host mom will come in and unplug my fan/heater in the middle of the night! She's done it at 3am even. Which ticked me off so much that I just stopped using the dang thing. I honestly don't even know what to do about that situation. I don't want to be rude and tell them to stop having a good time when I'm sleeping but at the same time I don't know if I can keep living like this!

In other news, I got my first test back and I got a B+ (didn't fail afterall)! I'm also hopefully going to be starting some language exchanges soon with friends I've made here who want to practice English with me. So I'll have you update you all about that later . . . I'm exhausted now and I'm going to take advantage of my peace and quiet while I still have it!

Besos y abrazos para todos!