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!