Hanging out in La Serena and Celebrating the 18 de Septiembre

So last weekend was the long awaited 18 de Spetiembre. My family went to La Serena (a city about a four hour drive south from here) where we stayed with my hostdad's sister. On Friday we went for a paseo in the Elqui Valley to my host-family's lugar secreto. Frankly, I probably shouldn't be telling you about it, but it's not like I could tell you where it was if I wanted to (and I don't). Suffice to say we had an asado there with my host-family, my host mom's mom and my host-dad's mom, dad and sister. As you can probably guess, we ate empanadas and large amounts fo meat before breaking out the guitar for some typical chilean songs and dances. I mainly just watched most of this, but I did dance some cueca. On saturday, more or less the same thing was repeated, but this time at somebody's house also in the valle. You will probably be shocked to learn that there was no cueca danced n the 18th (ok, so not where I was, I'm sure there was somwhere in Chile. I did however learn how to hacer bailar el trompo (I'm not actually sure that's the correct term for it). It's something like spinning a top, but it requires way more skill. I'll try to upload a video but I'm not sure if I'm blog-savvy enough.
My succeses with flying kites were a little less, well, succesful. Apparently Chile is big on kites, who knew? On Sunday we went to the beach (no, it wasn't exactly beach weather) and explored Coquimbo, La Serena's port counterpart. We ate at a restaurant in the seafood market and wandered around a bit before heading to a giant fair that takes place every year over the 18th. It was packed with people and everyone had to stick close together so as not to get lost. Monday we headed back home because my hostsiblings had school starting on Tuesday even though I have this whole week off. I've pretty much been studk at home for the past couple of days attempting to tach myself guitar, but yesterday I met some friends at the mall and window shopped. Getting there was a bit of an adventure, I decided to walk and ended up getting just a bit lost, but I made it. Last night was also my hostmom's cousin's 18th birthday, so they had a fmily asado with all of the cousins and everyone. I go back to school on monday, but this weekend I have an AFS get together, and next weekend is our first real orientation! I'm excited about hanging out with the other exchange students again!

Getting ready for the 18 de Septiembre

For this to make sense, you should know that the 18th of Spetember is the Chilean national holiday. Picture the fourth of July, but a way bigger deal. The whole month of September gets devoted to being Chilean, people put flags on their cars, on their houses (apparently it's against the law not to) and act Chilean. From what I can tell, this involves dancing cueca and going to asados. Last weekend my host family went to visit my host dad's grandma in Totoral, a village in the Chilean countryside. Yes, it is as cute and rustic as that description makes it sound. There we ate a ridiculous amount of grilled meat. I'd been under the impression that asados were like barbeques with the salads and side dishes etc. but it turns out that they are comprised of grilled meat. Period. After eating, my host-mom helped me improve my cueca (the Chilean national dance) because I was going to dance it in an act at my school on the 16th. Don't think that because Chile is a Latin American country that it's national dance is anything like tango or salsa (which by the way just means sauce) because it's not. Cueca is a quirky flirtation. Frankly, I can't describe it. Go google it if your curious. My cueca did get to the point where it was passable, and dancing it in front of the entire school was actually fun! I think I'm growing to like the spotlight. If you're wondering why I ended up dancing the Chilean national dance in an act, you're not the only one. (I'm still wondering this myself.) All five of us exchange students had to dance and they partnered us with Chileans who are actually good at dancing to make up for our lack of knowledge. All and I'll I'd say it turned out pretty well. I also ended up playing the base for a song that my class was performing a Mapuche dance to. (In case your curious, yes I did feel cool, despite my flowery cueca dress). Speaking of which, everybody with a few exceptions came to school dressed like huasos (chilean cowboys?) today. Why don't we do anything like this in the US? To wrap this up let me mention that my family is going to la Serena for the weekend of the 18th where we will (hopefully) eat empanadas, go to an asado, and dance cueca.

Anniversario del Colegio

I apoligize for being boring lately, but it's gotten to the point where life here almost feels routine. After a month here, I obviously don't speak Spanish fluently or really fit it, but that's t be expected. I can however, understand a lot more, and I'm way more comfortable with Chilean life in general. I even went into a store and bought something all by myself yesterday! It was only a bottle of coke, but still, I felt accomplished.

As you can probably tell from the above mentioned adventure, I've been having an exciting week. Last weekend, my family went to the desierto florido for a passeo. We drove a couple of hours on a highway before turning onto a dirt road that led to the village that my abuela and her mom live in. They have goats by the way. That dirt road turned out to be nothing compared to the one through the desierto though. We stopped and took alot of pictures, and I spent part of the time riding outside of the car (Ely got the roof, I'm a bit jealous). Overall, it was a bit like stepping into a Monet painting. Everything was pastel colored, the flowers were like the dots of paint from an impressionist's brush, and the clouds were so damned fluffy! Whew, there, I'm done trying to be poetic.

Besides Chile's awe-inspiring landscape, there has also been the matter of my school's anniversary. Apparently in Chile, school's celebrate their anniversary once a year (that needed clarification) by forming alliances, having a bunch of games/contests, and doing other crazy stuff. I was in the Hollywood or white alliance (we won by the way!), and this involved doing a show where people dressed up as celebrities and walked the red carpet. I was Madonna. (Please try not to laugh.) Part of the festivities also involved having each of the exchange students come up on the stage and dance. (Previous comment reiterated) Basically I've been feeling a little bit out of my comfort zone the past few days.

The anniversary ended Friday night with la fiesta del colegio. It was regala, and since I don't own any fancy clothing, I ended up borrowing my mom's sister's dress and shoes, my host-sister's leather jacket, and having my host-mom do my hair and makeup. Getting to Casa Norte, where the party was, was an adventure in itself. It was down a long dirt road, but since it rained thursday, mud road may have been a more accurate description. When I showed up at ten (it started at nine) the two exchange students with rotary, me and a handful of Chileans were the only ones there. This whole notion of latin time is taking some getting used to. I danced with Sara (the finnish exchange student), Daniela and a couple of other people.

The rest of the weekend I've mostly done homework. Guess who got assigned a two page essay to write! Yes, I did! It's to replace a dissertacion that they did in tecnología while I wasn't here. I also have to read book for thursday. Fun. I did, however, walk around the centro yesterday with my hostmom and sister, and saw the mil cuecas they're dancing in the square. We also ate sushi (apparently that's one of my host-family's favorite types of food).