My latest endeavors...

So, the first mistake I made was to bring the book, "Twilight" with me to Chile. I meant to read it on the plane, but I decided it'd be best for me to start reading Isabel Allende's "House of Spirits."  The second mistake was that one afternoon I decided to start reading it. That was last Thursday. I finished it Saturday afternoon after staying up late two nights reading it. It was just SUCH a good book! For those who are unfamiliar with it, it is about a girl who falls in love with a vampire. The movie, which is based on it and of the same name, just came out a few months ago and was filmed in Oregon and Washington (Multnomah Falls, the Gorge, and the CEO (?) of Nike's house are in it).  

Anywho, the book was extremely good and I, unfortunately, made the third mistake of reading the teaser of the second book, "New Moon" (conveniently located at the end of the first book).  I REALLY wanted to read the "New Moon," but I refuse to read it in English.   That would be stupid.  I am here in Santiago, Chile to learn Spanish, not English.  Seeing this as a priceless opportunity to take advantage of my "Twilight" obsession, I went out and bought "New Moon" in Spanish to read.  That way, my need to know what happens will conquer the difficulties of reading in Spanish and I will learn a bunch of new vocabulary along the way!  I've read about six pages (from where the teaser left off) and it is very difficult and just a little frustrating!  I want to read it so badly, but it takes a lot of time to look up words every once in a while and such.  But, I will get much better at preterite (I know that already), as the whole book is written in it.  =)  And it will feel so good once I finish it!  

Saturday evening I went to my friend Kelsey's house to join in her family's "asado," or barbeque.  It was really fun!  Her host family's house is gorgeous and even has a super-green little backyard with grass, bushes, ferns, and a little waterfall.  They also have a hammock!  Her host-aunts, uncles, and cousins all showed up and we played Wii, had a yummy pudding and peaches dessert/appetizer, ate chicken wings and baby hotdogs off the grill, and then stuffed our stomachs with beef, and various salads.  I could barely eat it all!  We also had some red wine, beer with Fanta (orange soda), lots of water, and a special Chilean drink called "vainta (?)" which is warmed wine with whipped egg yolk and cinnamon.  I liked the "vainta" best.  =)  (By the way, the drinking age here is 18.)  

After dinner we all sat around and watched mostly the men play poker.  I had never seen it played before and was quite confused until I went and had a meeting with Kelsey in her room to look up the rules.  We didn't play though as they were using real money.  =)  But it was fun.  

Oh, and yesterday Silvia and Victor took Fransisco and I to a really nice Chinese restaurant. It was very good, and apparently pretty authentic, as there was a group of Chinese tourists also eating there.  

Tomorrow is my first day of my internship, so it should be exciting!  Here are some food pictures for all you food-lovers.  I've included descriptions of them for you.  And here are some other pictures from the past few days.  Enjoy!  

Chilean Food

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