Wedding-Chile Style!

Just when I think life in Chile is settling down, and maybe not every experience is new and shiny this country throws me a curveball. What is it this time? A Chilean wedding of course! My host sister's wedding definitely goes down as not only one of the most fun nights in Chile,but also a giant serving of culture on a copper platter(nope not silver, gotta stick with Chile's big export). I guess I could actually say this was a Chilean-Argentine wedding, since she did marry an Argentinian.On a side note, the story of how they met is actually really cute. They met at a costume party. He was dressed as Zorro and she was a princess. They even included that in the wedding invitation design,with little clip art  drawings of them in the costumes with their heads photoshopped in. Anyways, I'd say I've been to enough weddings in the U.S. to note some differences, one being time.All I can say is everything is later. The ceremony was scheduled to start at 7:00. Well, 7:30 rolled around and people were still mingling outside the church. Finally people took their seats and the ceremony started. Except for the fact that it was in Spanish, it could have been a U.S. wedding, with the ring bearer and vow exchanges. But looking into the audience I was reminded that it wasn't. There were a few extravagant get ups you wouldn't see in the U.S. probably.A woman with a flashy long flowered dress and a little fur coat.  Plus there was what I personally nicknamed the paparazzi crew. It was the guests, not the professional photographer, who were climbing over others and moving around different aisles and areas of the church to get a good shot of the action.I actually sat next to some guests from the U.S. who turned to me and whispered "It's like it's a show!" It was pretty funny to see them moving as a little pack during the opening march.
After the ceremony we headed to the reception at the Hyatt in a really nice area of Santiago called Las Condes. First there was a little cocktail/appetizer hour, and then everyone moved into the dining area. Oh by the way it was 10:30 p.m. or so when we were seated. I sat with the "jovenes" table, which was mostly the 20-something crowd. This is where I'd like to interject some self pride for the progression of my Spanish skills since I've gotten here. I found myself very at ease with the all Spanish conversation. Three months ago I would have been using a lot more energy to follow the conversation and not have any left to talk much. Here I could enjoy the meal(which was great by the way.smoked salmon salad,steak, and a mini dessert platter. yum!), interject in the conversation,and laugh for real at the jokes I actually understood. One of the guys at the table said I didn't have a gringa accent, to which I replied "Wow thank you! I don't believe you..but thank you!"
The meal finally ended at 12a.m. and then came the Argentine flavor in the mix. The couple's first dance was a tango! My host sister and her husband were amazing! Now I know what they meant earlier when they said they needed to practice more.Tango is an intricate dance!
Then came the dancing.I don't think there was one butt in a chair...everyone hit the dance floor! There was a great mix of current American music,reggaeton, and K-Pop...yup they played "Gangnam Style," the viral Korean pop song with the, um, unique dance. It was certainly something seeing the groomsmen all on stage performing it!
Then came some more crazy...sometime around 1 or 2 people on stilts and guys dressed as court jesters doing flips came out of nowhere! They started passing out silly hats and everyone put them on without hesitation. Then the whole dance floor,sporting their funny hats(I got a penguin by the way) formed a congo line which went between the legs of the stilt men!
The rest of the night was chock full of random, but memorable moments.I ditched my too small penguin hat at one point, where it was quickly scooped up by another guest. I said "chao" to my incredibly painful heels,danced on stage with all the gals, sang along to all the songs and English and what I could of the ones in Spanish. Then finally the night ended at 6 a.m. I made it!
I just want to finish this post reflecting on how happy I am that I decided to stay with my host family this semester. It's always a little awkward in the beginning, adjusting to the family's lifestyle and being comfortable around the house,but the cultural and language benefits are priceless. It's going to be different next semester, since I've already decided I'll be living in an apartment,so I can have two kinds of experiences. However, I'm glad I decided to stick it out with my family for this semester. I would encourage anyone who was going to study abroad to go for it and stay with a family,because you will be amazed at the cultural experiences that will come your way! A wedding is a pretty good example, don't ya think?