Okay… who forgot to close the refrigerator door?!

One day a month or so ago, I woke up to discover that someone had left the refrigerator door open and let all the cold air out into the city. It took me a few days of said refrigerator cold to realize that autumn had finally fallen upon us. Despite this fact, it still took my brain a week or so to get over that it is May and yet the leaves are changing colors and people are wearing sweaters and looking like they’re going skiing, in the mornings (seriously, some people really get layered up). Once I realized it’s fall, I started freaking out that if it was fall already, I’d missed this summer and all the fun things I was going to do! But then I remembered that it is May. I’m finally feeling excited for autumn as more trees have colorful leaves (not as bold as in Portland or the N.E. coast), and it’s getting easier to see the buildings in the distance from our balcony. It’s actually kinda cool: with all the green foilage it was hard to see the apartments across the plaza, or the buildings down the street, so now it’s like the world is becoming more 3D! Very cool.

With the coming of the cold I have descovered a new favorite item: the bed warmer! It’s like an electric blanket but it’s just a pad that goes under your sheets. It has two levels of heat – 1, and 2 – and is absolutely wonderful! I haven’t needed to use it much, but really enjoyed it when I did! The reason they have bed warmers is because there doesn’t seem to be central heating here in Chile. My internship is always freezing and our apartment here is not so insulated, so I have definitely noticed the lack of heat. But I’m sure as it gets colder the space heaters I have glimpsed will become more active.

So besides the cultureshock of the changing seasons, I am doing well. =P The Friday, May 1st was Labor Day so we had the day off. It was fabulous! Since nothing was open, Victor, Silvia, and I stayed home all day relaxing and doing household stuff. Only when we all wandered into the diningroom for lunch did we realize that we were all in our pajamas! It was a very nice, relaxing day. Thursday night I had watched “Cars” in Spanish (LOVE that movie!!!!) and so started cracking up after I finished watching the new “Herbie” movie (the one with Lindsey Lohan – not too bad a movie). It’s not often that I watch TWO car-related movies in a row!

Saturday morning we all woke up, dropped Piringuina (the dog) off at the dog salon and then raced back to get picked up in front of our apartment by Victor’s friends Juan and I-can’t-remember-his-name (yes, the same two guys who came over three or so weeks ago) to take us to a vinyard about an hour outside of the city. Juan’s vehicle was a gigantic, roomy, 5-person truck with spiffy metal accents in the truckbed. On the way he pointed out the different famous vinyards and told us a little about the area: “La Ruta del Vino,” or “The Wine Path” or something like that, is where most of the vinyards in Chile are. We finally arrived at “Viña Casas del Bosque” where we took a tour of the vinyard and learned how they make the wines (I caught most of it, but some things I got lost on). The conclusion of the tour consisted of a five-wine tasting session. We learned ALL about the different kinds of wine that they made there and what foods they go best with. And for those of you who are concerned about pairing wine with the right food, I now have a little pamphlet (one in Spanish AND one in English). =)

Oh, by the way, that Friday (May 1st) we had a small earthquake! I was sitting in my bed working on my homework at 9:45 am when all of a sudden my bed started shaking, and I noticed that my door, the pictures on the wall, and everything else was, too! It didn’t last very long and nothing fell down or anything, but it was still very exciting. It was the first earthquake for some on our program.

Mother’s Day was fun: we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch and I gave Silvia the origami flowers I had made for her. She loved them! Victor had bought her a bouquet and yummy pateries for breakfast so it was perfect.

Friday the 8th was the 21st birthday for another one of our group so we rented out the little bar again and had an 80’s themed party!! It was great! We all found 80’s clothes at the thrift stores (the 80’s are still very much in fashion so it wasn’t hard). I found an awesome white shirt with tons of beads on it, put my hair in a side ponytail, added my ballet flats, some big earrings I bought off the street, and some leggings that I borrowed from one of the other girls. Note: leggings are like skinny stretch pants, NOT like ballet leggings which are more like socks – see my pictures if you need more help with the definition. Anywho, we invited all our Chilean friends, too and had a great time! =P

Other news: last weekend I took my friend Sara with me to go to Cachagua to stay with Niko (our friend Adrián’s Chilean brother, who I met at his sister’s house three weeks ago). It was very fun! Cachagua is about three hour’s bus ride north of Santiago on the coast and is where many rich people have their beach houses. Niko, is one of the few people who actually lives there during the week (the rest just come when they feel like it or for the weekends). The cool part is that we got to see penguins! They live on the little island right off the beach (it’s VERY close). We weren’t able to get super close to them, and they were kinda hard to see, but it was still SUPER cool!!!! I was extremely excited. Sadly, the penguin population there is dwindling as their habitat is infringed upon. The other exciting thing is that we got to meet the lead singer of the famous Chilean band of the 80’s, “Upa.”

Saturday night Nico took us to his friends’ house who are renting a nice beach house. They have an adorable two month old baby who I had a ton of fun playing with. But the lead singer of Upa, is one of their friends so was staying with them for the weekend. They call him “Rock Star” and I can’t remember his real name. He definitely is a Rock Star though – he even sang some songs to us, including one to the baby! It was so cute.

So besides that, I’m just finishing up classes. AHHHHHHHH! I can’t believe that I only have one more week of finals/classes! I don’t want it to end! =( This past week I finished most all of my presentations. Next week I have my final for Environmental Problems, and then Friday I have two papers (one is Spanish, one in English) due PLUS my Spanish final and another assignment due. So it’s going to be an exciting week. The frustrating part is that my internet has not been working for the past two weeks at my house, which makes things very complicated. Grrrrr… I’m hoping to figure it out ASAP!

Happy Navy Day! Last thursday was Navy Day so we all had the day off. It was great! Navy Day is celebrated every May 21st to commemorate the Battle of Iqueque in the 1800’s when Chile won the maritime battle over the northern territory with Peru. Every year the President makes his/her “State of the Union-esque” speech in Congress in Valparaíso (the coastal city where Pinochet put the Congress while he was in power), and there is a grand military parade afterwards.

This year was President Michele Bachelet’s last year, so it was more memorable than others. I watched the first few minutes of it. It was cool – interesting to see that most the women (wives of Senators and Senators) looked more like they were going to a British horse race (without the hats – so stylish, expensive dresses, but not so many suits) rather than a Presidential speech.

It was also interesting to see that the national anthem (I think that’s what it was) was played by strings, instead of brass. The actual speech of the President was about two hours long, so I didn’t watch for long, but it was fun to see that they had someone doing signlanguage translation in the corner of the TV screen, and every time the president touched on something inmportant, a little banner would pop up with the quote or topic.

Afterwards there was the military parade. It was extremely impressive! Everyone was in their suits and in line, and when they passed the stand where the President, Secretary of the Military (or whatever his title is), and all the other officials were, they started high marching! Like, 90-degree high marching! It was amazing. I tried to march like that, but failed horribly. It’s so hard! I don’t remember how many thousands of military members (the navy, army, police, everyone) marched by but it was a TON.

After the parade I was shocked to see on the news that there had been a riot outside of Congress while the President was speaking. Several people were taken into custody and there were several injured, but it was shocking to see how they were spraying people with hoses from tanks! It was that bad! Crazy. They were protesting the President, claiming that she doesn’t listen to the people’s needs. That’s what Silvia complained about, too. How sad.  

Friday I went to see a play for my Spanish class.  It was called "Tercer Cuerpo" and was about a bunch of people who work in an office.  It was good, but a bit confusing.  And it didn't help that it was from Argentina so some of the words were pronounced differently (like "sho" for "I" instead of "yo").  But fortunately I went with Antonio so he was able to explain everything to me afterwards.  =)

Anywho, hope you all have a great week! Sorry for the delay in updates and therefore long length of this one. I’ve been having fun. =)

I’ll write another update after I manage to survive this next week… somehow. (^_^) Oh, and by the way, I'm convinced the internet at my house has something against me 'cause I don't think I'll ever be able to get back on.  Gah!!  Fortunately, the internet works perfectly with my computer at my University so I just have to lug my computer with me every day. Ah, well.

I'll have to post pictures later because I'm at my internship now and should technically be working.  =P  

Chau!

Vinyards, 80's parties, and others.