Week 7!

Well guys, the second-to-last week of being in Chile has come to an end.  It was a pretty good one--let's take a look!

Monday, Dec 31

My one and only Monday class was cancelled, so I got to sleep in and take my sweet time in the morning.  Libby and I headed out about midday to meet up with Rosie and Anna for lunch.  We went to Waffles and Crepes, and I got this awesome salmon roll with avocado, cream cheese, and onions.  Yum!

Afterwards we went to the Jumbo to pick up some groceries for New Years Eve dinner.  The lines were ridiculously long.  We were able to get into the express line, which usually doubles back on itself twice, but today had doubled back on itself 4 times and went down half an aisle.  It was crazy!  Then Andres picked Rosie and me up and we headed up the mountain to their house.  To have a New Years POOL PARTY!

That's right, I went to the pool for New Years Eve.  Be jealous.

In Chile, New Years is a family affair.  People have dinner, drinks, and count down to the new year with their families.  THEN they head out partying around 1 or 2.  Andres's parents were so kind to invite me to their family dinner for New Years.  I met his brother Flan (yes, it's a dessert, no, I don't think that's his real name) and his girlfriend.  We had a cheese plate and Rosie made Mexican-style dips for appetizers.

But the real beauty comes in the form of Andres' paella.  It's a rice dish with clams, mussels, abalone, shrimp, sausage, ham, and chicken.  It's yellow because of the saffron.

It was really delicious, though I couldn't eat a lot--I had filled up on chips and dip!  For dessert there was a beautiful fruit salad to go on top of ice cream.  It had all kinds of stuff in it--cantaloupe, watermelon, apples, peaches, cherries, and blueberries.  Amazing!  Regretfully, I did not get a picture.  At the end of dinner, we had the new years countdown, and everybody hugged and kissed cheeks (a very Chilean thing to do).  It felt so nice to be there for this lovely family event.

Andres and Flan

I can't help it that Andres is silly...

Us with Nika banana

The girls

We had planned to go out and meet up with Libby and Anna afterwards, but we were all so tired we just went to bed instead.

Oh, one extra note.  All week I had been seeing people selling yellow panties.  I mean stores, street vendors, you name it.  Turns out, in Chile it's good luck to wear yellow underwear to greet the new year.  Maybe that's what we've been doing wrong??  Happy New Year everybody!

Tuesday, Jan 1

Tuesday was a holiday and a day off work, so I just took it easy.  Rosie and Andres took me home, I did a work out, and just various reading the rest of the day.  Nothing too exciting.

Wednesday, Jan 2

Ok guys, Wednesday was the surprise I promised you last week.  I had to go to a class at noon, and when I came back:

Oh, it is a Shea!  For those of you who don't know him, this is my friend Shea that went to Truman with me and was also in Korea for part of the time I was there.  Since we make the big bucks in Korea, heh, he came down to visit and check out some South America.  He had to dress up because he had special airplane tickets since his dad used to work for the airline.To welcome him, I brought him his first empanadas (in Chile) and we hung around with Rosie until dinner time.  The we went to Korean food with Libby and Andres!  It was awesome.  I don't usually order tteok bokki because it's kind of a plain, everyday dish, but since there were 5 of us we could order quite a few dishes, so we got some of that.  Yeah fishcake!!  Didn't take any pictures this time, sorry!

Went to bed relatively early because I had to teach again the next day.

Thursday, Jan 3

My last day of work!  I had two classes, both of which had tests, so I thought I wouldn't have to do much.  That was a mis-estimation for my first class.  He finished the entire test, along with the speaking, in about 15 minutes of the 1.5 hour class!  It was fine, we just went ahead and started the next chapter.  Oh, and he got a 95%.  Aw yeah, I'm an awesome teacher!

Went home, had some lunch, picked up Shea and headed to my 2nd class.  Shea hung out in the park while I was in class, and then we headed over to Bridge to finish up my class paperwork.

That evening, we went to check out Bella Vista, which is a party neighborhood with a lot of restaurants/bars and a few clubs.  I actually lived in that area my first week in Chile, but never really bothered to check out the nightlife.  Rosie and Andres aren't drinking right now, and I had just arrived so I didn't know anyone else to go with me.

Anyway, we found a table on a patio and had a few pitchers and some food.

We also made friends with the Chilean guy at the table next to us, and part way through the evening the girl sitting behind me turned around and said to Shea, "Hey, didn't you come through Miami on your way here the other day?"  Turns out, they had briefly met in the airport and she had asked him to watch her bags while she went to ask a question at the counter.  Small world eh?

On the way home I caught a picture of the aviation plaza:

I recommend clicking to see the big picture

Friday, Jan 4

Well, we got in pretty late on Thursday, so Friday was pretty much just spent watching movies.  We got our classic on with The Jerk.  That movie was crazy!  I love Bernadette Peters, I think she is so adorable.  Also watched Elf, Spirited Away, and I finally got to see Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter!  If you like ridiculous action movies with fantastically unrealistic scenes, this one's for you.  Meaning it was awesome!

Some hangover refreshment:

Pineapple...mostly just tasted like sugar

We also moved all my stuff to another room in the apartment.  Apparently Maria Eugenia had promised my particular room to someone else (even though I was in it?), so she asked (aka, politely demanded) that I move to another room.  This room is fine too, I just think that's a weird/sketchy way to run things.  Oh well!

Saturday, Jan 5

On Saturday we went with Rosie, Andres, and Anna to a birthday pool party for this girl Alison that works with Rosie and me at Bridge.  She's the girl who went to Los Dominicos with us the other week--I finally learned her name!  Anyway, it was nice and hot, and the pool was cool.

Me with the hostess, Leo (a random Chilean dude), and Anna

I played a little ping pong.  I beat Shea and Rosie, but not this dude:

He was pretty good.

After the pool party we were all pretty hungry, so we all went to the little French restaurant near my place.  We got a delicious cheese plate appetizer:

as well as this:

It's very rare beef with capers and cheese on top, though I didn't catch the name.  While I'm not usually one for beef, I like to try new things, so I had a bite.  I dunno, it tasted like meat to me.  One bite was fine, thank you.

I ordered conejo (rabbit) in mustard sauce.

Ok guys, now brace yourself for the story of this dish.  I ate the leg part first.  It was good, and the sauce was excellent.  Ok, I've finished the leg, now let's check out this other part.  *pokes it with fork*  Hmm, it's pretty hard, seems to be mostly bone, that's strange...*turn the piece of meat*

Omg, omg, it's a head.  There is a rabbit head on my plate guys.  Guys, guys, there is a rabbit head on my plate!!

Actually, after the initial shock, I calmed down quite a bit.  Dug this out and ate it:

Yup, that's a rabbit tongue.  It was yummy.  Also tried the cheeks.  All in all, rabbit face is not bad, but there's not much meat on it.

Hope you enjoyed that story!  Andres also ordered Crepes Suzette to share:

Sunday, Jan 4

On Sunday I got a surprise message from Rosie saying we should go to Valparaiso for the afternoon!  It was sudden, but nice since I had been trying to get her to commit to when she wanted to head over there for a while.  Valparaiso is a city on the coast and it's all hills.  The town center is flat, and the hills go up all around it (except for where, the ocean is, obviously).  There are roads that go around, of course, but they also have these elevator-type-things call funiculars around the city.

We parked and I got a few random pictures of the city.  It almost felt like a fairy tale city.  The buildings were so colorful and cute.  Very cool.

We headed to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which is an art museum set in an old Art Nouveau palace that was originally owned by an Italian nitrate Baron.  There were some pretty cool works:

The photo of this painting doesn't do it justice.  The sun and reflection looked really cool in the actual painting.

This photo is also not as spectacular as the real thing.  The pink on the snow was so vivid that at first we thought maybe there was a light shining on it.  Absolutely fantastic!

A painting of Valparaiso itself from up on the hill.  Again, I recommend clicking for a better view.

After that we took one of the funiculars down, took a little walk through town, and took another one back up.

Rosie and me in the funicular

The opposite one coming down as we go up.

  

Went through a cute little neighborhood of restaurants, and then back to the car to head over to Vina del Mar for dinner.

Vina del Mar is another city that is right next to Valparaiso.  We went to a seafood restaurant right on the water.  There were seagulls, pelicans, and even a few seals...or sea lions.  There seemed to be some debate going on at the table as to which.

We got these abalones for appetizers

Also got some wine:

Is it a tiny bottle or a huge glass??

Oh, it's a tiny bottle.

I had a fish soup.

It was really good, but really hot!  I burned my tongue :-(

After that, we drove around Vina del Mar lost for a while, and finally found the way back to Santiago.  I was exhausted and headed straight to bed.  A very awesome day to end a pretty awesome week.