A weekend's adventures...

Hmm..so it's sort of been a while since I've written anything...I feel like I several times now I've thought to myself ''boy, I should make sure and write about this,'' and then I haven't done it. So. What's new...?

Well, to start with, I went to my second salsa class, and, despite being terrified to return, it ended up being not awful! I was amazed! I got there right on time, and sat around in an empty gym for 15 minutes thinking I probably had the hour wrong before other students started showing up. The Tuesday meeting of the class has a lot of other American students in it, but I think that most of them are from the same exchange program and have some other class they have to attend on Thursdays so there were only 3 other gringos in the class. That was kind of nice, because I really don’t like to be in big crowds of gringos—people just lump us all together and assume that we’re all here together, and begin to either (a) cater to us as a different crowd, by talking slowly or simplifying things or that sort of thing or (b) ignore us altogether and assume we don’t want to have anything to do with them. The second seems to be the case with my Fonologia class—the Chilean students don’t talk to the Americans at all. I don’t exactly understand why, but it’s pretty lame.

Anyhow, that wasn’t the case this time, because there were way more Chileans than Americans in the salsa class, and they were really quite friendly and helpful. The first time I was there I sort of felt like all of the students must already be pros or something, because the whole class was dancing together when I arrived. However, that’s just because they had spend an hour practicing the same step over and over again. This Thursday, when I went, after practicing the same step for an hour I was pretty good at it, too, even though it’s rather complicated. Of course, I probably couldn’t remember it right now, and even if I could it would be the only salsa move I know so I wouldn’t exactly be an exciting dance partner at a Salsa Discoteque, but at least I know it’s not impossible and I’m not hopelessly behind. In fact, nearly everyone in the class is at the beginner level. Before going to this class I was really really upset with myself for not dropping it before the add/drop date, because every time I thought about it my life flashed before my eyes, but now I’m glad I stuck it out instead of being a chicken.

So that’s that. What else…well, this weekend I finally had an opportunity to hang out with and get to know some other Chileans my age. At school it’s kind of tough for the reasons I described, and so I don’t actually know anyone in any of my classes. However, this week is the “Week of the University” for Felipe’s university, La U Catolica, and because of this all week long they’ve got different parties going on at the different campuses. Friday night we went to campus San Joaquin, where all of his classes are. I met several of his friends there and it was pretty fun, and then after that we went to the home of a friend of his from high school and hung out for a while. When I say hung out for a while, I mean I got home at 5 in the morning. 5 IN THE MORNING! That’s freaking CRAZY! I’d heard plenty of times that here people get started late and keep going all through the night, and this weekend I finally saw how true it is. It’s not like we were even doing anything wild and crazy –it was just a bunch of people sitting at his friend’s house talking and listening to music, and when we left they didn’t look at all like they were planning on going to bed anytime soon.

What’s crazier is that last night, we went to another one of the university parties, this one at Campus Oriente, which is just a few blocks from our house. We met up with all of the same people again, and they’re all very nice so I enjoyed it. We danced all night long in the campus courtyard, first to Reggatone music which is a Latin club-style music that’s kind of similar to the music in clubs at home. People dance to it differently, though, and it was kind of hard because I felt like I was hearing a different beat in the music than everyone else. I feel like that’s actually possible because I was talking with KellyAnne about that phenomena and she told me that in the one or two times she’s been to clubs here the same thing has happened to her with Reggatone. It’s just a different style of dancing, I guess. Anyhow, that was fun and everything, but around 2 or 3 a live band started playing salsa and merengue music, and that was awesome. We literally danced the night away, this time making it back home at SIX! Of course this weekend the weather finally turned into summer (even though technically it’s still winter here) and the two nicest days since I’ve been here I slept until 1.

Every Saturday my host sister Sandra, her husband and their two kids Lucas, who’s 8 and Isadora, who is 10 months, come over for lunch and just to hang out for a while. After lunch I went out to La Chascona, the one of Pablo Neruda’s three homes that is located in Santiago. It’s absolutely amazing! He was really a crazy, eccentric old guy, that’s for sure! He built this house as a secret getaway to facilitate a long-term affair he was having, a woman who eventually ended up being his final wife. He was obsessed with ships and the sea, so he designed the whole complex to mimic being on a ship. I call it a complex because instead of making one building like any normal person, there are 3 buildings spread out across a hillside, with rivers (yes, rivers) running down waterfalls and alongside windows so it looks and sounds like you’re near the ocean. The hillside was damaged during the coup in the 70’s, and they had to engineer the water into underground pipes after that because they were eroding away the hillside, but it’s still incredible. The rooms are all small, with short, curved ceilings, furniture from real ships and bench seats along the walls instead of chairs which would slide around in a storm. In the dining room, there was a trap door which leads to one of the two private living quarters. Apparently it was regularly used in dinner parties, when Neruda would make a grand entrance through the disguised door dressed up in a bear costume, or like a priest, or occasionally even Salvador Allende. His house is decorated with original artwork from people like Salvador Dali, and each building has its own themed bar. The more I learn about him, the more fascinating Neruda becomes!

Anyhow, I could go on and on for hours, but I’ve actually got some homework to do if you can believe that, so…for now…ciao!