Last Monday was KellyAnne’s birthday, so to celebrate we threw a party at her house on Friday night. She lives in a “pension,” (it’s not actually pronounced “pension”) which is like a boarding house where quite a few international and Chilean students live, along with the family who runs it. We spend quite a bit of time hanging out there in general, and it’s really a fun environment because there are American, German, French, Swiss, Mexican and Chilean students all together usually cooking, watching TV and just generally hanging out. The party that we had on Friday night, just to make it more entertaining, was 80’s themed. It was an absolute inflexible rule that you had to arrive dressed like people dress in the 80’s, and we only listened to music from the decade. Through the week as we talked to people, especially Chileans, about the theme it became pretty obvious that they’re not really used to the idea of a dress-up party theme. They couldn’t quite believe that we were serious about having a costume, and were even a little bit stressed about the idea. However, we remained firm, and were quite pleased that night to see that everyone we invited actually arrived in 80’s attire.
In the end, there were probably 30 or so people there, which was a pretty awesome turnout considering that KellyAnne and I were kind of feeling like we don’t really know anyone except each other here. All of the Chileans seemed pretty impressed by the turnout, too –I’ve gotten the impression that they don’t really normally throw big parties here. I heard a few people coming in the door at one point see how many people were there and ask if there was a cover charge! Felipe and I (and the people we ended up having to take home) stayed until 5 in the morning (I don’t want to believe that they always seem to do it like that here, nor can I get used to it, but it seems to be a common theme.) Also, I successfully made a birthday cake for KellyAnne, which I was really quite proud about since I’ve had such a tough time baking here. It turned out really pretty good, although it was a bit burnt on the sides. However, if you consider how much fussing over it and moving it around in the oven and adjusting the temperature I had to do (after 35 minutes in the oven it was perfectly brown on the sides and top and pure dough everywhere else…that’s a challenge to save, my friends) I’m impressed by how good it actually was.
I’ll share some pictures of the party in a bit, but I have to get them from KellyAnne first because I didn’t bring my own camera.
The next day I didn’t really do anything, to be perfectly honest. As a product of the fact that I got home a little after 5, I slept until about noon. Since all of the family comes over for lunch on Saturdays (keep in mind lunch starts around 2 or 3 here) it’s usually a pretty relaxed, time wasting type of day – a nice slow start, then a really slow lunch while everyone eats and chats and enjoys the weather (we eat out on the patio a lot) – I’ve found it’s kind of hard to actually do anything on Saturdays. It’s kind of hard, because it’s simply impossible to eat fast and leave –you have to wait for the cook to bring out each course of the meal, and it would seem incredibly rude to do that anyways –and it’s the only day of the week I see Sandra and her family usually so it’s only polite to stay a while. Not to mention it’s kind of nice to sit around and enjoy the whole “family environment” thing.
However, these characteristics of Saturdays in general make it feel occasionally like my house is a time vortex, and before I’m even paying attention it’s 6 and most of the museums or things I want to see are closed (they mostly close really early on Saturdays) so I have to try and find something to do so I can feel like my “free day” wasn’t a complete loss. This weekend, however, I was unsuccessful in finding that thing. I thought that I left my cell phone at KellyAnne’s after the party, but it turns out it actually disappeared (it’s a really really common model of phone and I’m pretty positive someone else accidentally took it home and hasn’t returned it yet so probably won’t) so I went to her house to look for it and talk someone into creating an adventure. However, I got there and discovered that everyone was still pretty exhausted from the night before so we ended up just cooking some food and wasting the afternoon away talking about the night before, looking at pictures and building houses of cards at the kitchen table.
That night, we went over to Piter’s house (Piter is the friend of Felipe’s who we met up with in Valparaiso…he happens to live two blocks away from our house and is super nice) and played Pictonary with charades instead of drawing while drinking Piscolas.
Today, I got up relatively early and went to Mass at the Cathedral of Santiago, which is HUGE and gorgeous. Then…we went to a FUTBALL GAME!! GOOOOAAAALLLL!! It was a freakin’ blast. Here in Santiago (and in Chile in general) there are three major professional teams – la Universidad de Chile, la Universidad Catolica y Colo colo. Even though they have names of universities, they’re not actually university teams, which is confusing. Apparently the teams used to be like our college sports teams but have since changed to be actual pro teams who have just retained their old names. Usually they play teams from other countries, but in Chile each year there are three “Clasicos,” when Chile’s teams play each other. Today was a Clasico, with La U de Chile and la Catolica playing. It was my first time ever going to a soccer game, and it was pretty crazy. The whole stadium has songs that they all sing together, kind of like little girls’ softball games, except what bits I could actually understand they’re more than a little bit more vulgar.
One of the funniest parts to me was that in soccer, much different from football, when someone is “hurt” by a foul of some sort they roll around on the ground clutching some extremity and making a great big scene. I guess they do this so that the foul will be given to them, and it actually usually works, but it’s really funny to see big tough athletes rolling around on the ground and moaning just because someone bumped into them. I’m much more accustomed to the “I’m fine, I’m fine” “Walk it off” manly man attitude of our sports!
Also funny was the fact that once again I had an opportunity to see the riot police branch of the Carabineros, although this time they weren’t in action. They patrol the stadium to maintain the peace, which apparently is actually necessary at times but wasn’t today, and actually escort the soccer players onto the field to keep opposing fans from throwing things at them…which they do when given a chance.
Anyhow, the U de Chile won, which was good for me because a) that’s the section I was sitting in b) that’s the school I go to…although everyone emphases emphatically that which school you attend has absolutely no bearing on your team faithfulness and c) that’s the team my family here roots for…even though Felipe goes to la Catolica (see b).
All in all it was a pretty good day, and I’m glad that as opposed to yesterday I actually made myself get out and do something today!
Oh, and Zach, I checked, and the water in the toilet circles counterclockwise here. So yup, it’s opposite.
I’ve got freakin’ 7 ½ hours of biology class tomorrow, so I think I’m going to get off the computer and get my stuff together for school tomorrow before hitting the sack. Ciao!
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