Demolition Derby… Chilean Style

For all of you who have been wondering… I made it to Chile safe and sound. We arrived in Vina del Mar last Friday to pouring rain and temperatures in the low 50’s. It is there winter here and unlike what most people think, it really is pretty cold here right now. However, I must say that I am quite spoiled as I sit in my bedroom with a space heater blowing hot air directly me. We (my Chilean mom, Maria Elena; my sister, Fran; and my brother, Guillermo, on the weekends) live in an apartment on the 4th floor of an apartment complex that sits on a hill. Not only do I love my family so far, but I don’t think I could have asked for a more perfect room. In addition to the space heater, I have an electric blanket, a queen-sized bed, a closet, a desk, a power strip cord with adapter plug-ins, HUGE windows that give rise to the best view ever of the ocean and the city of Vina, and to top it all off… my room is yellow! Yeah… just try to tell me it’s not great.

Anyways… this morning I went to mass at a church near my house. It was all in Spanish, so I couldn’t understand too much of it yet, but it was easy enough to follow along. Communion, though, was another story. When it came time for people to go up for communion I had absolutely no idea what was going on. People behind us were going up to receive communion before people in the 2nd row had even gotten up. People were going up so randomly and I didn’t know what to do, so I finally looked at my friend and we decided to go. Most people after receiving the host simply turned around right where they were and started walking back to their seat. Pretty soon we had one big traffic jam going on in the middle of the aisle. Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure everyone managed to make it back to their seats in a surprisingly quick fashion without getting hurt.

After church a larger group of us met up and walked down to la playa (the beach). We walked by and looked at all of the artesanarías (art/craft booths). Then we stopped to grab something for lunch. I had what I’m pretty sure was called a churrosco. Others had hamburgers, churros, chicken sandwiches, and completos which are HUGE hot dogs and buns with TONS of stuff on them (I’m sorry Meghan for never wanting you to make them because I am SUPER excited to eat one now… they look AMAZING!)

Right next to the place we were sitting and eating our food on the beach, there was an area with all kinds of activities for kids. The one closest to us was a small racetrack. After paying their money, each kid was able to pick out their favorite power wheel car drive around the track. It was so entertaining to watch… let me tell you! All of us got such a kick out of this one little girl in a blue jeep. This little girl had a look of determination in her eyes as she whipped around each corner of the track. I can’t even tell you how many cars she ran into as a result. The funny thing is, when she ran into a car she didn’t just stop like most people probably would. No, instead, she kept giving it more gas until one of the workers would come, grab her jeep, pull her back, and point her in a new direction. One time she even hit a car going so fast that the front of her jeep drove up and was resting on the back end of the car in front of her. We were all laughing so hard as I sat there trying to decide if it was this was the new version of bumper cars or simply a little kids demolition derby. It looked like so much fun though, and I think it’s interesting to think that there is absolutely no way you would ever see anything remotely close to that in the United States. It’s kind of sad to think about, but if there was a little kid’s demolition derby in the U.S. like the one they have here, you know there would be lawsuits flying left and right.

Classes start tomorrow. I’m taking 4 classes. For our first senior seminar class on Thursday we are taking a bus to Santiago. When we get there we will be going to La Moneda (the Chilean equivalent of the United States White House) and watching a documentary on the life of Ariel Dorfman (a famous author from Chile). Yeah are we lucky or what??? One of the leaders of our trip was a student of his while she was a student at Duke University and that is why we are able to go. I am really excited.

Goal for my next trip to the beach: to eat an entire completo.