Last weekend was a really fun time. Not only did we have an amazing week in Putre, but we got back on a Friday afternoon so we had a whole weekend ahead of us when we got back. Saturday I went to my cousin's birthday party (Fiorella, she turned 12), which was pretty entertaining. She's everything a diva 12-year-old girl could be. The party basically consisted of her and her friends dancing and singing along to American pop hits - everything from Katy Perry to Justin Bieber to Lady Gaga and many more. It was kind of fun to watch them try to sing along, because obviously they don't actually know the words or understand the lyrics, they just sing what the words sound like to them. One girl came up to me and asked "So wait, you really know what they're saying right? You understand the whole song?" I laughed and told her yes and she proceeded to ask me what some of the lyrics were saying (the current song at the time was Hey, Soul Sister, a personal favorite of mine, and as I learned a favorite of my host mom as well). I did my best but it was a little iffy at time since the song lyrics don't really make sense in English as it is ("my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest" -- you get the point), but it was fun and they thought it was really cool. After that I headed over to one of my friends house for her host sister's birthday party which had a costume theme. Another girl's host mom just happens to own like a hundred costumes (not really sure why), so we all got to dress up and it was a really fun time. I wore what I think was supposed to be a little red riding hood costume and put my hair in pigtails, and the girl's mom came up to me and pulled on my hair because she thought it was a wig! There really are no blondes in Chile!
The rest of the week progressed pretty slowly with quite a bit of homework every night. Wednesday I got together with two girls and we made chocolate chip cookies which was super fun! We're all kind of missing the ability to cook our own food (or have options at least), so it was really nice. And chocolate chip cookies just taste like home. It was a bit of a struggle though for many reasons -- 1) chocolate chips do not exist in their own form in Chile - after much searching in the grocery store we just settled for a few blocks of chocolate to cut up, which worked fine. 2) No measuring cups! This just including a lot of estimating and resourcefulness (i.e. a coffee mug and a large spoon). 3) The ovens don't set to a specific temperature! Just a dial that ranges between not-so-hot and hottest. But, despite all that, the cookies turned out great. I brought a plate home for my family and my mom was so happy and intrigued (cookies aren't really a thing in Chile besides packaged ones like chips ahoy). Apparently her and my brothers enjoyed them because when I went to the kitchen for breakfast the next morning there was only one left! I'll have to give her a recipe and make them with her sometime before I leave.
Friday came along and some of our group opted to participate in Las Peñas, a religious trek/ceremony that occurs every year in Arica. It essentially consists of people trekking ~25 miles through the desert to a small church where there's a sighting or special statue (I'm not exactly sure) of the Virgin Mary. People hike there to give thanks or to ask favors of the Virgin. Depending on the severity of the favor, people do different things. My mom told me that some people who are very passionate and committed and are asking a serious favor (such as to cure a relative who is very sick) will do things such as do the travel whole trek on their hands and knees or carrying a backpack full of rocks. That's commitment, I tell you. On the other hand, it's also just a way for families to do something together -- literally people of all age (from babies to the elderly) participate. However, I opted out, as they decided to do the trek overnight and to me staying up for ~36 hours while walking for ~6 hours doesn't sound very pleasant. Those who did go, though, had a good time. I spent most of the night at a friends house making guacamole and white sangria (with white wine, ginger ale, peach juice, kiwi, grapefruit, orange, and lemon, yummy!) and eating cheese. It was a really good, relaxing night.
Saturday afternoon I headed to the beach with some friends. We laid in the sand, walked through the water, enjoyed the sun, and just relaxed. After ending the afternoon with some shrimp and cheese empanadas, I was perfectly content. Later that night was Eileen's (another girl from my program) 21st birthday party. Her host family (her parents and two sisters, who are close to our age) threw her a wonderful dinner party for all of us (yes, all 24 of us). Her sisters, who a few of the sweetest girls I've ever met, loved playing the role of hostesses and were so happy to make us different Chilean drinks. After a little while we all sat down for dinner and her dad gave one of the best toasts I've ever heard. I swear, we all (well, at least I), started to tear up. He expressed how truly thankful he was to have all of us come to his family's home to celebrate the birthday of his new daughter, and how admirable it was for us to venture to a new country to learn about a new culture, and how after all, we all are equal - the only things that differ us from one another are the color of our skin and our language. It was a beautiful toast, a beautiful dinner, and a beautiful day and night. With regards to my classes and homework, thing are continuing on. I've been a little frustrated with the work load this week because it seems to be piling on, but in all reality I only have 1.5 weeks of class left so I can't complain. I'm still struggling a bit with the theme for my Independent Study Project, which is becoming a little stressful, but I'll figure it out.
Tomorrow late afternoon we leave for Tacna, Peru which I'm super excited about. We'll be there until Friday. I don't really know much about the city or what we'll be doing (haven't done any of my background reading yet), so I guess it'll all be a surprise. I do know that everything is super cheap there so I'm going go try to scoop up some more alpaca gear. Once again I won't be bringing my computer with, so no Facebook/e-mail access probably, but I'll definitely be putting all of my new pictures up next weekend along with another blog post.
That's all for now!
Chao,
Brittany
Photos! picasaweb.google.com/bliebhard
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