This Chilean Life

Hello All!
Wow, so much has happened in the last few days! Life is definitely speeding up here! I've had a chance to get a taste of new aspects of Chilean life. So here's the breakdown,because I have a feeling this will be a long post.

• Wine tasting
• La Moneda
• Big Mall
• Skiing 

Tuesday: Wine tasting at Viña Concha y Toro. We took a trip with our cultural group to a vineyard about an hour outside Santiago. We got to see how they irrigate the vineyards and had an abbreviated wine tasting.I felt so silly swirling the glass around and smelling the wine the way the guide told us to. I might now know what good wine tastes like now though.

Casillero del Diablo. 

Thursday: Visit to La Moneda a.k.a the Chilean White House.However, the president of Chile doesn't live there, he just works there. It was a pretty short tour,but we got to see a few downstairs rooms. There is also a "president's door," which is the president's personal door. It wasn't used for a while after the death of president Salvador Allende.He was found dead on the day of the military coup,but the details of his "assassination" aren't clear to me and are even debated today. After that we ate at a restaurant in Plaza de Armas, where I ate my first pastel de choclo. It's a Chilean dish that's basically like really sweet corn bread filled with meat, eggs, onions, and an olive. It was a bit undercooked and way to sweet for me. My host mom told me that if you're gonna have pastel de choclo, it has to be cooked well. I didn't have such luck with my first one.

Hanging out with a serious guard

Our cultural groups inside La Moneda

Pastel de Choclo. Good at first, then gooey and over sweet

Friday: I went to the biggest mall I've ever seen! There were about 6 levels full of fancy stores and a grocery store called "Jumbo," which was huge too. We picked up some snacks for our trip to the Andes. It was the first time I saw sliced bread in Chile,but it's quite expensive here, as is peanut butter. Chileans do love their mayo though. It came in huge bags and I spotted it in at least 3 different aisles. The food court was full of food you would see in the U.S. too, like Taco Bell, Dominos, and McDonalds. This mall was an interesting place to see "hybridization." There were obvious signs of globalization,but there was still signs of uniquely Chilean things. It was like a Chilean twist on U.S. culture. 

Saturday and Sunday: The Andes!

We formed groups this weekend to do a cultural project for our class, so two of the groups chose the Andes. To be honest, ski resorts are not what most people would consider "cultural," but you can definitely make a social commentary on them. The people up there were from everywhere from Australia to Brazil, and it's definitely a place for the richer level of society here. There were families with little kids decked out in fancy snow gear. It was my first time skiing on Saturday, and I have to admit it was incredibly frustrating and exhausting. One of my friends in the program is an experienced skier from Oregon,so she helped me get my bearings. I fell down a lot and it took me over an hour to get down one slope, while 5 year olds zoomed by me. By the last hour and a half I finally was getting the hang of the technique.I learned how to gather speed and stop without crashing. Plus riding the ski lift was fun,because you get a chance to chat with new people. I even got a few recommendations for other places to check out in Santiago.I'm definitely feeling the sore-ness though! But at least I can say that I skied in July, in the Andes...sounds like a bucket list item to me!

In my skiing gear. I look way more legitimate than I actually was here...

On Sunday most of the group, including myself, opted out of skiing the second day.It's expensive! We relaxed at our hostel, found random wooden sleds to use, and snacked on the pb&j we brought up, since the hostel provided only breakfast and dinner. The hostel manager also came out and chatted with us. He drank a tea called "mote," which was disgusting, but he said it helps curb hunger and claimed it helped him lose weight. Plus, he kept the tea leaves in a beaver pelt. Interesting... but he was very nice and recommended some Chilean and Argentinian bands to check out. This is because we mentioned how we were surprised how the night before the live band performing sang a lot in English. My personal favorite was a rocked out version of "Take me to the Funky Town." Don't know where "the" came in, but it was funny to me.And the crowed was really enjoying it.So anyway he shared different groups, from all regions of Chile, and gave a little historical background to each one. That was definitely something we could use in our presentation. Just when we were getting pretty bored, the two people in our group who skied/snowboarded returned and we headed back down the mountain. I came back home to a hearty steak,empanada, and rice dinner and a clean bed. After eating, I slept for almost 10 hours! That's the most I have slept so far in Chile!

Overall it was a great trip outside Santiago. I probably would have planned the transportation differently,because I'm pretty sure our van driver ripped us off a bit. Right when we got dropped off Saturday afternoon he told us we needed to give 8,000 more pesos on top of the original rate to "reserve" our spot for the next day.It just seemed wrong that he didn't tell us before, like he was worried we'd find other arrangements. It was really unfair to me that he did that on the spot to us, but now I know that stuff like that can happen when you travel and you just have to be sure to know the details to prevent stuff like that happening. But on a happier note, it turns out I'm not only dreaming but also talking in my sleep in Spanish. My friends told me I was speaking Spanish in the middle of the night at the hostel...I'm proud of myself! Now, it's time to meet up with my group and figure out what aspects of the trip we want to present on. Chao amigos!

chilenismo # i don't remember: sacar la chucha: basically means to fall and eat it. which I did a lot while skiing. In a phrase you would say something like "ohhh you're covered in mud... sacaste la chucha?"