All Fannied Up

Well it has been quite eventful in the days since I last posted.
Wednesday night we did go back to our new favorite bar- Le Pub 36.5 - and had a few cheap beers, listened to Miguel play and then talked with him and his friend- who just happens to be a magician! He did about 5 tricks for us, and they were REALLY good. One of the most impressive was when he made a card levitate. He was fantastic and Maggie gave him 1000 pesos (which is the equivalent of 2 dollars).. In response to the anonymous comment on my last post: The beer here is quite good. There is a large German population in the middle of Chile and they have a few really good beers (Kuntsmann being fantastic) and Escudo isn't bad either, and is cheaper. Cristal- the Bud or Miller of Chile is quite cheap, but isn't as good. I usually avoid it. Heineken is VERY popular here, and we often get a bottle or two of that as well. It is served cold (thank God) and we even had a waitress refuse to serve us beer for awhile one night because she said the beer wasn't cold enough yet. I have found that I have a talent for pouring beer without too much foam so I am usually the designated pourer. Using the money here took awhile to get used to. They use pesos and 500 pesos is equivalent to about one American dollar. The coins come in 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 pesos. And the bills come in 1000, 2000, 5000, 10,000 and 20,000 pesos. Once you have it in your head that 500 = 1 dollar, it gets easier... So going back to my stories, Wednesday night was fun with music and magic and beer and good company. Thursday night all of the American students went to a play with our three teachers for one of our "cultural excursions". I didn't know what to expect but it was a FANTASTIC play. There were only three actors, and one basically acted out the whole show which was about Chile and how it was colonized and how the Mapuche people and the Europeans came together to create what Chile is today. I can't even explain it because it was so unique. Each of the actors played about four instruments during the one-act play with one set. The timing was perfect- it must have taken a LOT of practice, and it was a really good representation of Chilean culture. Afterwards, our teachers decided to go out for a drink with us, so about 2/3 of the students and our professors went to a bar across the street and went through about 6 pitchers of escudo and had a great time. I spent a lot of time talking with my professor, Andrea (I don't remember her last name because we don't use it). She is German and Chilean, and is probably one of the most beautiful women in the world. She grew up partly in Germany and partly here in Santiago- but since she learned English in school in Germany she speaks english with a German accent. She got her doctorate in literature in Berlin and she has great stories to tell. She is very laid back and funny and has promised to do karaoke with us this week. It was so surreal going out with our teachers, but it wasn't weird either. Adelaida- our culture teacher- got up and started dancing to Justin Timberlake which was really random and hilarious, but all in all it was a good night. Friday morning we all had to meet Andrea at a metro stop to go and get our Chilean IDs which took about 5 hours- 4 of which spent standing in line. But it was quite an adventure. The craziest part was running into Gustavo- the man who we met at the 80s bar. I guess he really was a cop and he recognized Kait and Nicky and tried to help by taking them and other students in to do the processing right away, but he didn't know what he was doing so it ended up taking longer than it should have. When everyone was finally processed and fingerprinted a bunch of us went out to lunch with Andrea which was fun again- but no real interesting stories to tell there. That afternoon I was exhausted so I just spent the evening talking with my Chilean "cousin" Rodrigo- yes i got him to talk again- and relaxing. He asked if I wanted pizza and I said NO TELEPIZZA, which he said wasn't bad (crazy Chileans), but then he ran to the grocery store 10 minutes before it closed to by these mini individual pizzas that he heated in the microwave. Definitely not Papa John's or Pizza Hut but it was interesting. I have a feeling that I am not going to have normal pizza until July, and I will avoid it until then. Saturday morning I had to get up early to meet my classmates and our program director at the University to leave for Valpariso- a town a couple hours north where we went to see one of Pablo Neruda's houses. The bus ride was lovely and I got to try out my new MP3 player (Judith saw how much of a pain it was for my to lug my cd player and cds around and bought be a little MP3 player for a "birthday gift". It was a total surprise and I tried to say no because I know they can be expensive- but she insisted. It was the sweetest thing ever and now I want to get her something really neat before I leave as well.) Valparaiso is a very poor city and it is obvious just driving through it that it is much dirtier than Santiago. Although, there was some really great architecture in the city and the houses go all the way up into the hills overlooking the ocean - so it is also very beautiful. Pablo Neruda's house is built up on the hill and has three stories to ensure a view of the whole city and the ocean- as he was obsessed with all things involving water and boats. I wish I could have taken photos inside the house as it was spectacular. He had so much art and unique decorations, it was beautiful! They had a few of his poems on display and I think I will be reading much more of it, because those that I did read were absolutely beautiful. I was talking about Neruda with my host family- and while Judith and Rodrigo don't care for his work, Eduardo (the ex husband) absolutely adores Neruda and was so excited to talk about him with me. I am really enjoying having conversations with my family and although sometimes I get fed up with sitting and listening to spanish and trying to follow all the time, I think its good for me to be exposed to it, and I really like my family here a lot... After seeing the house, we went to a great restaurant right next to the Ocean where I tried Chilean Sea Bass (I thought of you, Grandpa) which was DELICIOUS. It was probably the best fish I have ever had. And of course a few glasses of Chilean wine which was a great compliment to the fish. After we were all full and happy on wine, we stopped by a little market place that overlooked the port. I got a really neat pair of earrings, and then one of the girls found some really funky looking fanny packs that only cost 2000 pesos. We decided we each had to get one- to fit in of course :-P, so I got a rastafarian looking one with red, black, green and yellow stripes. Then the bus driver was nice enough to drop us off at the hostel which was adorable. It was up on one of the hills and the rooms were clean and comfy. The people who worked there were wonderful, and one boy spoke English fairly well. We all explored the hostel for a bit and took ciestas before venturing into the city. We found a little restaurant where we had churrasco italianos- which are steak sandwiches with tomato, avocado and mayo, and a couple pitchers of beer (there were a lot of us). We then went back to the Hostel for a drink at the bar there before heading down to the dance club called "Huevo" where everyone told us to go. The hostel owner had pisco for us and made us the strongest pisco with ginger ale possible, so we went off to the club in a good mood. The club was great -it was 5 floors with different types of music on each floor. There we danced all night and I learned how to Salsa dance a bit with a guy named Valentin who lives in Santiago. He was a lot of fun and he and his friend walked me and a few other girls to the hostel after the club closed at 5am. We were lucky, because apparently three other people in our group had been mugged within the span of an hour. I know there are people who are going to worry after reading that, but please don't- we learned our lesson to always take cabs home, and on Monday Judith said that Valpo is not a good place to stay and that next time we should stay in Vina del Mar which is 10 minutes north of Valpo and much less impoverished. We didn't know that going into the weekend, so we know now to ask our families before all travel plans! We were planning on visiting Vina the next day, but only a few people were still up for it on Sunday and the rest of us took buses home after checking out of the hostel. It is now Monday and I think this week is going to be much more relaxed after everything last week and this weekend. I need to start saving money as it is getting closer to February- aka, month long excursion into southern Chile which we are all trying to plan out right now. I think a bunch of us are going camping in the mountains this upcoming weekend, which should be an adventure and hopefully it will work out......
Mullets: 150 + ..... Dogs: Not even worth counting anymore..... Fanny packs: 200ish (8 of which from our group!)..... New opinions of the world and the United States: changes every day!................

Please keep the comments and e-mails coming, its great to hear from people in the states- and especially people I care about who speak ENGLISH!