Fiesta Patrias!

Feliz Fiestas Patrias Todos!! (Happy Independence Day Everyone!!)

Sunday September 18th was Independence Day in Chile, so Monday we had a holiday!! The whole week before and on the weekend there were parades, carnivals, and lots of barbeques with families and friends. People did traditional Chilean things, just like we do on the 4th of July, from eating asado (BBQ) to dancing and watching the Queca (national dance). It was so cool to see the city decorated in red, white, and blue. Each day I would see more Chilean flags pop out from hiding and it was a really festive environment in the city. My host mom even decorated the house, I blew up the balloons :). Last Wednesday I went to my internship in El Monte in the afternoon to celebrate at the coorporation with the elders who go weekly. They had a big asado, and I helped cook and serve (what I could do). There was one point when the ladies were slicing onions, in the air without a cutting board, and I felt useless and told them I could do it, then I started slicing and lets just say that didn't last very long.... Then as they were cooking the chicken thighs on a grill that they had made on the ground, every time the coals would catch on fire, this man would throw drops of water to put it out so the chicken didn't catch on fire and the ladies would yell "NOT TOO MUCH" so that the coals wouldn't become cold. Lets just say it was a pretty entertaining display of cooking. THEN as I was standing there not doing anything, the boss lady Magdelena called me and her daughter and we walked up the street, down an ally, and into a random looking house which had about 7 older people sitting around a television watching the Simpsons on an old fuzzy tv in spanish and she said "HEY WHO WANTS TO COME TO THE PARTY" and one lady said "ahhh Magdelena, its been so long, i want to go!!" and the other said "I'll go if my sister goes"... and her sister wanted to go, so we got them in their wheel chairs and the 3 of us pushed them to the party, up the alley, down the street, over a few curbs and brought them to the party. I think my wheel chair had a flat tire and when a car would wait for us to pass, the ladies would say "Hello, excuse us!". hahahha it was pretty funny. 

Then, the weekend before that Bladimir, who is the guy who is evaluating us for our internship invited us to go horseback riding in El Monte with a friend he has who has horses and we all woke up early sunday morning, headed to el monte and got to ride past the dirt roads and into the mountains! It was awesome, there were a few prickly bushes we had to duck and dodge but other then that it was great. We got to the top of this little hill and they BBQ'd choripan, which is chorizo (or sausage like meat) in side a piece of bread.... we eat a lot of that. But it was really good and they were really nice! And I was talking to the man who took us and he was telling me about how we could go again anytime which was great for me :) I think Bladimir wanted to do it as a sort of thank you because they appreciate us so much going and helping in their schools because the kids there don't see much outside of El Monte. We were surprised to find out that a good number have never even been to Santiago, which is just an hour by bus which comes by about every 10 min. On that bus, I've been getting a lot of reading done which is great. A few of my friends here really like to read and we all rotate books which is really fun. 

For those of you who are thinking, "man does this girl do any school work at all?!?!" ....This morning, I had my first, semi-big test! I studied a lot the past weekend and filled out the study guide we were given on Friday (over the holiday). I was really nervous cause the readings were pretty tough but my teacher said I would be able to do the test in English which was great for me. When I got to the test it was all pretty much the same things that were on the study guide so I was so happy I took the time to fill it out and I think the test went well!!! So stay tuned, and I'll let you know how I did ;)

Well I think thats about it for now, I'm getting ready for my mom to come visit me in a couple weeks so I'm starting to get really excited about that!!! :D Talk to you all soon!

I forgot to mention, we visited South America's largest copper mine, which was kinda cool, but it was a realllllllly long day. I think from the picture, you can tell what was Favi and my favorite part of the day... :)

This is our table decorated for Fiestas Patrias, sorry to have to flip your head. My host mom put little flags in the oranges, it was really cute! Her mom keeps giving us more oranges then we can eat so we got creative putting them to use!! 

Cultura Chilena #101

In most homes in order to use hot water you must turn on the "calefon" (not sure if thats the right spelling, but its how you say it) by lighting it. They used to be in bathrooms but a lot of people were dying from carbon monoxide poisining if there was a leak and they were in the shower, so they were moved to a different part of the house and now are newer and safer. Ours is behind a door that has a window to the outside and my host mom turns it on if I need to use it.