Santiago: Semana 4

Time really does fly by...i feel like I just got here and it is already the last week! On tuesday of this week, I went to the Pablo Neruda house in Santiago. He has three houses and they are all somehow shaped like a boat. I knew I had heard of Pablo before but it wasn´t until we tok the tour that I actually remembered learning all about him in my spanish classes. So, it turned out to be more interesting than I thought. On Wednesday, I went out to lunch after class and we were on our way to this other museum since we didn´t have anything to do and I got all the way there and realized I had told some other girls that I would go to yoga with them, so i had to turn all the way around and not go. And then they didn´t even show up! It was a miscommunication but it was silly since I should have just gone to the museum since I wanted to. Oh well. That night I went out in Bella Vista with friends from school for some drinks. Nothing too exciting but one of the guys there was a brazillian model...I think i need to go visit brazil soon! Thursday night was a good night with a bad ending. I went to Carlos´ going away party...another one I know but this one was just his friends and it was outside of school. But I am luckily friends with his love interest at the moment so we got invited. Carlos used to have a mustache so the theme was mustaches and everyone put them on and was taking silly pictures. At first, no one was really talking to us since they were just all talking spanish to each other, but then once they had a few drinks we were the center of attention. They were all trying to practice their english, but I did end up speaking alot of spanish too since some of them really couldn´t speak english. It was supposed to be a bbq but we got there and there was no food, and then they went to the store to buy some chorizo and drinks, and then we had choripan which is there name for sausage in a hot dog bun. There was no chips, no side dishes...I definitely missed my traditional american bbq. nd there wasn´t even a cake for Carlos´going away! I would have baked one if i had the means to do so. I left my camera on the table since everyone was taking pictures and I figured if people wanted to take more pics with my camera, fine with me. There was only like 10 people there, 15 at most and I looked for my camera later in the night and it was gone! Someone stole it! I have no clue who would do that since everyone there was friends with Carlos, but its gone. I had it for a whole two months:( They must have figured they could steal it from the gringa since they would never see me again. So it was a fun night with a sad ending. Friday I had my last day of school...thank god since I am in a desperate need of a break from school. I want to be enjoying it so hopefully after two weeks of traveling I will be ready to finish up. Also, my teacher had this weird tick that made him swallow really loudly like 57 times during class and I couldn´t really handle it anymore. I said my discurso at school and did some errands and then went home to have my last dinner with my chilean mother. I bought her some absolut pear vodka for a goodbye present since she drinks like $3 handles of vodka now. So we had a cocktail, then I packed for the trip. I had to let go of some unnecessary things but I think i will manage without them.

I had Josi sleep over on Friday night since my house mom always said ¨oh if any of your friends need to stay over they are more than welcome¨and then she asked where she was when it was time for dinner, even though I figured she wouldn´t feed her since I am the only one paying for food. But then the next morning she made Josi breakfast. Then we went off to Valpairaso for the day...we ended up running into a friend of Josi´s that she had met in BA and so we hung out with him most of the day. We went up an elevator to one of the hills and we found a place to eat chorillana. We went to all these nice looking restaurants but the only thing we wanted to eat was chorillana and this guy told us the best place to eat it and it was this dump of a restaurant with flies and stuff but we still sat down and ate it. It was delicious. It consists of a heap of french fries, grilled onions, egg, meat and cheese. I think the guy we were with was dissapointed in not going to one of his recommended nice restaurants but we didn´t really care. They were well worth it. We then went to Pablo´s other house that had an amazing view of all of Valpairaso which is right on the water. After that we walked along the beach to Viña del mar and took the bus home. When we got home that night we were in a rush to catch our midnight bus but we hadn´t eaten since lunch so I was still going to have some dinner that the mom had already made. She asked if Josi wanted some too so I said only if she had any extra. Then my chilean mother went off in about why was josi staying there, why didn´t she have a place to go, why was she eating her food, she was only trying to be a good host but she cant just give anyone food and a shower, I m supposed to be her only responsibility bla bla. It was so weird considering she was like forcing the food upon her and telling her that she should definitely stay the night. I think she must have expected us to pay her up front and then when we didnt, she was mad. I went from feeling like another part of her family to a person that she makes a lot of money off of. She made Josi pay her 10 mil which is like $15 for the night. It was such a bad note to leave the house on, but oh well at least I am out of there and don´t have to go back! We managed to make our midnight bus with 2 minutes to spare...josi was freaking out but I knew we were going to make it.