Veinte vino en el viento a Viña

Well, it seems that week 2 of classes here in Chile will not be much different from week 1, as already I have had cancelled classes, classes scheduled in 2 rooms at the same time but that ended up not happening in either, and professors who show up 45 minutes late for class. But, like I said, I kind of like it, and I kind of think I will miss the disorder when I return to Texas next semester.

Friday night we went out with a group of our friends to get drinks and go dancing, and FINALLY we had a good "going out" experience. We had non-shady friends to dance with, we actually liked the drinks we ordered, and we were the only gringos. Saturday night we opted to stay in and spend 2 hours watching Flight of the Conchords (or fotc, as we nerdily refer to them now) on Youtube. In the afternoon on saturday I went to once with the whole family -- grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... The grandparents live in a swanky apartment in one of the high rise complexes with a fantastic view out over the city. Grampa (abuelito) is really nice and I can understand his spanish really well. He is the protector of the family, and comes every weekend to bring my host mom groceries and fix things around the house. Grandma (nonna) loves talking and nurturing and sweets. Over once we talked about everything from drama with my host sister´s now-ex-boyfriend, the economic crisis, madonna´s new boyfriend, and at one point they all felt the need to assure me that, despite Danni´s (host sister) and my host mom´s bad experiences with chilean men leaving them, they are not all bad. I think that most chileans get really excited about extranjeros coming, falling in love with a chilean, and staying here.

I still felt really uncomfortable at church sunday, which is really a shame. The bad part is that it is my own fault for making myself feel so out of place among a group of people who are so loving and kind to me. Sometimes I freeze up in large groups of people and refuse to do anything of my own accord, and instead wait for everyone else to introduce me to people, to show me where to go, and so forth. It felt like I came out of myself and saw me, frozen, and just wanted to scream at myself to let go and be a human being. But thank goodness that God is a friend when I can´t find it in myself to meet any.

Sunday I went with my host mom to buy some things for the birthday celebration, and I think she is now officially my mom-away-from-mom because for the first time she got on my nerves. It was that petty, silly annoyance that only moms can achieve, as we walked through the isles of the grocery store with her hand on the grocery cart and her list in the other hand.
"I don´t like hot dogs" I told her.
"You don´t like hot dogs? That´s what all the young people here eat. All the time. When they go out, when they get together. They love hot dogs."
"Yeah, I just don´t really like them. We could do pizza instead?"
"You really don´t like hot dogs? What about chicken hot dogs? Those are good."
"I mean, I´m just really not a fan."
"Well, pizza is pretty expensive. We´ll just get hot dogs. OK?"

I felt like I could be having this same kind of conversation with my real mom, annoyed at her for not listening to me, but loving her all the while.

Tuesday morning (the birthday) I woke up to the smell of bacon, and what should I find but Molly, cooking me pancakes, bacon, and eggs for the traditional breakfast in bed. She served me on a tray decorated with flowers and all things delicious and breakfasty, and we watched Flight of the Conchords that she downloaded from John Boiles´s computer in Austin. It was fantastic. I really do have the best best friend in the world. Later I went to class, then walked over to the open air produce market next to my school to buy ingredients to make homemade salsa. I think in total I spent no more than $2, and it made about a gallon of salsa. And it was freaking delicious. In the evening I went to the beach by myself to watch the sun set, until the night time chill chased me home, where I started getting things ready for the fiesta. We had fresh salsa, the infamous hot dogs, brownies, kuchen, and mimosas. Several of our chilean friends came, along with my host sister, molly´s host sister, and our friend Marcus from North Carolina. It was fantastic, and I really couldn´t have asked for anything more. I was just so happy to have friends here! Friday morning we´re going to catch a bus to Santiago to go to Fantasilandia (like 6 flags) for the day and then stay the night with our friend Marco.

Now I have 2 hours to kill before my next class...

Keep the comments coming, let me know you´re reading!
chau