Last Days in Chile!

I'M LEAVING CHILE SO SOON I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO!!! it is a very weird feeling. i will be posting later tonight when I cannot sleep in anticipation...

lack of self control

Bought 1090 pesos worth of fruti by my house, which equals about 2.50$ dollars, and who thinks those are gonna last through the week?

peaces, plums, nectarines, apples

 Chilean mom gave me two boxes on peanuts, who thinks these are gonna last the night?

mani with case, mani without case

Hint: they won't.

Weekend Extraordinaire

Ohh what a weekend my friends. Lots of celebrating and eating and staying up all night in this wonderful city of Santiago.

It started on Thursday, which was our grina-thanksgiving dinner in Manuel Montt and it was phenominal. Megan, Becca, Melli, Jess, and I went out for a pre-dinner drink around the corner, and then proceeded to share a bottle of wine at dinner (which we got for free!) I learned that tinto also means red, so vino tinto is red wine.  We of course sang happy birthday to Cait, who was turning 21 that Saturday. Lovely dinner.

Friday we went to Oscar's apartment, also known as Megan's new pololo, which was right next to my house! Met a bunch of people, Burger King run at 2, playground swing-set at night at 4, and in bed by 4:30 in the morning. Oh! And Cait and Joe dominated at beer pong. Represent America people, represent.

Saturday was the most crazy by far. I had another Thanksgiving day party with some gingas I met a few weeks ago, and I headed out to Bellas Artes and hung out at their apartment while everyone was cooking! My contribution: apple cider! Everyone was asking for my secret family recipe (not kidding) so here it is: I took some apple juice from the store, poured it into a pitcher. I took 4 apples, skinned them and cut them up, and dumped them into the pitcher. When I served everyone, I added rum. It was phenominal I must say. The food was so good though: mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, cranberry sause, green beans, pumpkin pie, and our own personal bar. The only thing was that since we are all used to Chilean concepts of time, the dinner that should have been at 7 was at 9:30. Still, successful third Thanksgiving I had! Afterwards I headed to Ali's to celebrate (again!) Cait's 21st birthday! The thing I love about Chilean parties is that they always turn into dance parties. Seriously. It is awesome. There were some of our Chilean friends there, and then some French students at UDP and of course the gringas. It was hard to tell, but both the French and the Chilean guys are amazing dancers. I wish American boys could do that! I was swung around and twirled until my feet hurt but it was so much fun! My contribution to this party: vino tinto, claro! It ended with me walking home, because I lived so close, with a friend, and then turning in just as the birds were chirping in the morning.

Santiago, I am thankful for one of my most interesting and fun weekends here so far. I love love love you and I know you love me back.

Happy Thanksgiving, all 3 times!

On being good at spanish

You know when you can tell when your Spanish is getting better? A few ways:

1. You can argue in Spanish!
2. You understand new people you've never talked to before: family members, strangers asking directions, ect...
3. You can get angry in Spanish, and start talking really fast and not mess up that badly!
4. According to Megan...the dates you go on now are so much easier than the ones you went on at the beginning of the semester. Seconded. 

Basically, I'm getting better. And it feels phenominal. I took two tests today, and all the grammer just flew out, and it was right! My brain loves being challenged.

turkey day, ohh turkey day

Thanksgiving, my friends, is an American holiday. But seriously, when has that ever stopped us from celebrating something? Currently I have 3 potential Thanksgiving day invites.

1. First one (and most awesome): "The Deputy Cheif of Mission of the Embassy of the United States of America" has invited me to a traditional American Thanksgiving Luncheon. Yes, that's right. I was invited to the US Embassy in Chile for a Thanksgiving lunch this Tuesday!!! It's all due to my internship, because the Fulbright Commission in Santiago works directly with the State Department to get visas and stuff, and because I work there, I get to go too! I'm was more excited than any of my co-workers.
2. Thursday, the group of gringas and our one grino are going to a restaurant for dinner in Manuel Montt for a reunion of turkey-day food and english language.
3. American party round dos: Saturday night at a friend's house; I declared that I would attempt to make apple cider by hand because we have a juicer at my house. According to my mom, I should skip the apple cider and go with a whiskey punch. 

Turkey, turkey, and more pavo! I LOVE FOOD!

HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER WOOO HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER YEAHHHH

That's right everyone, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 came out here Tuesday. I attempted to sneak into the premiere with some friends but failed miserably. However, I did get to see Matt Lewis, the actor who plays Neville Longbottom, who came to Santiago to promote the movie in Latin America! He only had one line in this movie, but this makes the second celebrity I've seen in person! The first, Cate Blanchett, kinda trumps Neville. But still. Awesome.

So I saw it last night at 9 pm and it was so phenominal. I love Harry Potter so much and I am clearly not ashamed for the entire world to know. If anything, the whole world should join me in celebrating this phenominal work of literary genius and stop reading Twilight. Vampires = boring, wizards = BAMF.

Anyway, the movie was phenominal and so good, probably the best one in years honestly. I don't really like David Yates (the director) but he did a pretty good job to be honest. I was holding onto Megan's hand the whole time I think; it was so dark and scary! But, thus is Harry.

Will I go again? I've decided at least thrice. Sunday matinee, once by myself later when I'm having a down day I think, and then once when I get back to the states. LOVE IT!!

Pa pa pa poker face

Chilean poker! Guess who just owned against 6 Chilean men in a high stakes (4 dollar buy in) poker game? That's right, the only gringa in the room. The game was at my house, served with hot pizza and red wine all around, with a few friends of my family. My brother, another one of my host brothers, my dad, around 5 other of his friends, another girl and myself played for hours on end.  There was a whole hour there where I won 4 out of 5 games, and was the only one who did not have to buy back in the whole time! It was awesome, and the red wine was from Santa Carolina 2006: phenominal. Except someone spilled all over himself and the table. I taught the Chileans the phrase "party foul" for that one.

I ended up going to bed at 1:30 am, because I had work in the morning, and didn't win! But, I stayed in there close to the end and taught everyone that even though I'm a gringa and my Spanish isn't the best, I can always keep my pa pa pa poker face on wherever I go...