Invierno: "in-vee-air-no" Winter
T-5 Days Until Snow!?
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| Mural in Cerro Concepción Valparaíso |
So I'm down to the final countdown. I will be a "citizen" of Chile for five more days until I fly Santiago-Canada-Ohio (flights never make sense, do they?) on the 11th, arriving at last on the 12th. As some of you have asked, yes this means if you had that letter sitting on your desk, avoiding asking the post office for international stamps, that you meant to mail me weeks ago, you should probably mail it to my house in Ohio rather than to Chile. Oddly enough, the mail has swallowed an unidentified amount of mail intended for me here in Chile so if I didn't write some of you back, it was unintentional I promise!
In the last week I've finished all of my exams, my giant final paper for my independent study of Juegos Mapuches (indigenous games), and have started crossing off things around Valparaíso and Viña del Mar that I always meant to do but never quite got around to it. One of my favorites has been going to my super fancy gym on the water--I've developed an obsession with Spinning classes, so hard but you lose track of the time!
Furthermore, for example, I've learned how to KNIT. Yes kids, I have officially become a grandmother and I sat around at night knitting with my host mom (who is the master) on Saturday night knitting instead of going out on the town. For those of you whose reaction included "Oh lord, that's boring," you're just jealous, and I will not be gifting you a scarf this Christmas! I don't know how to fix my mistakes when I mess up so I'll probably be a bit lost once I go home to the states, but you'd be surprised how many of my friends at Tulane I discovered that know how to knit as well.
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| Mamá Sonia & me at the Casino |
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| the beautiful cheese plate :) |
Last Thursday I also finally visited Casino Enjoy, Viña del Mar that has been an integral part of my running path for the past four months. I always ran around, behind, in front of the casino but never went into it even though the legal age here in 18. A lot of the older ladies of Viña spend their evenings in the casino livin' la vida loca and therefore rack up points and invitations to fun events, including the one my host mom invited me to which was a wine tasting held by the vineyard Tierra Vientos (Earth Winds). It was a white tablecloth event with beautiful plates of cheese and three full glasses of wine to try for each lady in the room. It was an event just for the girls (and therefore 2 of the glasses were white wine). We had their Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, with the Chardonnay being my favorite. The Red wasn't too bad, I think I've finally grown to like wine (or at least not make a face at it, like I used to do before I discovered the wonderful world of coffee). We ended up chatting with several of my host mom's friends after the event (everyone knows everyone at that place) but didn't gamble. Paula and I instead ran away to McDonalds for some sinful gringo sandwiches. Such a classy evening.
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| Recently went to one last Demonstración for Educación! |
Moving on, all of my friends have been traveling in the South this week, but Machu Picchu sucked my bank account dry and I chose to stay in town. I've been spending quality time with my host sister Paula and my mom as well as my brother Dani when he's not studying for his finals. The kids all went to see Happy Feet 2: El Pingüinito and I loved being able to understand all of the Spanish spoken, evident by laughing at the correct moments. I can't wait to see it in English, though, so I can see the banter between Brad Pitt and Matt Damon who each play krill. I always said that my PURPOSE and goal for traveling to South America was to see penguins. Well folks, this was how I accomplished my mission.
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| Grandmothers for Education! |
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| My sister Paula and I outside our house |
On another positive note as well, I've been spending time at the beach or the mall or shopping in downtown Valparaíso with my friend Rochelle who goes to Tulane but we had never met before Chile and I'm genuinely happy to have found someone else who wasn't traveling and who I could continue to be friends with once this adventure comes to a close. There are several people, in fact, from Tulane that I have come to consider friends and I look forward to seeing how things play out once we're normal students again. I continue to hear news from Tulane, like the Green Wave Basketball has a record of 9-0 and have caught National attention for it. I look forward to getting back to work with the team and seeing how things are different with so many new players and a new training facility. I still have to find another job as well once I get back (basketball managers are not well paid), so that's a scary prospect...real life is calling!
Anyways, I'm off to the sand dunes in ConCon- the best way to go sledding in the summertime!
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