Togas, Wine, and... CHRISTMAS?!?!?

On Wednesday evening our director organized a wine-tasting event at a great local vinoteca where he loves to buy all his wine. Upon arrival, our group of 10 was seated around a large table. Placed in front of each one of us were five wine glasses in addition to a glass of water. Two of the men who worked there led the event. Both of them were extremely knowledgeable in wines and they were able to answer all of the questions we put forth. They started by describing the best wine valleys in Chile as well as the wine making process as a whole. We learned which types of grapes are used to make which types of wine as well as why some wines are "drier" or more tinted than others. The drier or more tinted the wine is, the longer the skins of the grapes were left in with the liquid portion. Did you know that it is possible to make a white wine from red grapes? All you need to do is remove the skins of the grapes before you start the fermentation process. After learning about all of that we moved on to the wine-tasting! We started with a smooth, sweet white wine and ended with a dark, dry red wine. While tasting, they described each one to us in-depth as well as which types of food go best with which wine. After we had finished, my director asked me which one was my favorite. I thought about it for a minute and told him that I couldn't decide and that it would depend on the situation and what type of food I was eating it with. Each one of them was a high-quality wine and I honestly enjoyed trying all of them. I can't wait to get back now and cook a multiple course meal and pair each food with the perfect wine!

Yesterday afternoon two of my friends and I went to Valparaiso to do some exploring. We had a picnic lunch in Plaza Victoria and then proceeded to do some shopping! We ended up at Lider, a grocery store here, to buy some snacks for our upcoming trip to Chiloe. When I walked in the first thing I saw were Christmas decorations hanging up in the store. They weren't just selling the decorations, no... the entire store was decked out in garland, wreaths, and bulbs and it wasn't even Halloween yet! I think what made it the most strange for me though was the fact that all of the green decorations in the store were modeled off of conifierous, or evergreen, trees like ours are in the U.S. However, Chile doesn't even have coniferous trees around here! That color of green does not exist here! In addition, I don't think Christmas would be the same without the snow and cold and whiteness that we have in Minnesota during that time of the year. Right now though we are heading into summer here and the temperatures just keep going up! Anyways... I just wanted to tell all of you, "Happy Halloween!" er... I mean, "Merry Christmas!"

This past week was "Greek Week", or something like that, at our university. Last night we all dressed up in togas and went to our university for a Greek dinner. The night started with a theater production put on by other students. Then we all headed out to the patio where multiple tables were set up under a big tent. There were traditional singers, dancers, and even a bagpipe player to entertain us throughout the night. Supper was various types of quiches and dessert was a torta layered with the most manjar I've eaten in my entire life! It was all delicious as usual, and it was definitely a worthwhile event.

This afternoon I went with my host-sister and her boyfriend to his cabin in Horcon which is about 45 minutes north of here. We met up with a bunch of their friends from their university beforehand to buy all of the food, and then we all carpooled to Horcon. His cabin was a beautiful little cabin located right by the ocean. All of their friends were so nice, and I had such a great time with all of them. I hope that I can hang out with them again! They're all staying there for the entire weekend, but I unfortunately had to leave early to catch a bus back as I am leaving early tomorrow (actually this morning) morning for Chiloe. Actually we're leaving in about 6 hours so I need to get some sleep! Buenas noches!

Goal for the week: To stay warm in Chiloe! (For those of you who don't know... I am ALWAYS cold!)

I've Fallen SO Far Behind... Why Should I Even Try to Catch Up?!?

To whom it may concern: NO... I have not fallen off the face of the earth, and YES... I am still throughly enjoying my time here in Chile. Life here has been pretty busy, and we have recently been travelling quite a bit. Hence, the lack of blogging on my part. However, although I am WAY far behind, I do feel that it is important to let you all know what has been going on in my life for the past month. It probably won't be as detailed as past blogs, but I will do my best!

The first weekend of October a group of us travelled to La Serena. It is the 2nd oldest city in Chile and about a 7-hour bus ride to the north of Vina del Mar. Some of our group had left the day before the rest of us, so when we got there on Friday night they were already preparing supper in the hostel. The meal was spectacular! We ate pasta Rafael; which was basically noodles and a sauce that consisted of TONS of tomatoes, meat, onions, artichokes, garlic, and many many spices; as well as bread; wine; and of course... ice cream for dessert =)

Saturday we took a tour of Elqui Valley. Elqui Valley is the place in Chile where they make most of their pisco. Pisco is the most popular drink in Chile and it is made from grapes. On the tour we made several scenic stops... one awesome one at a dam, stopped at two cities where they had small art fairs set up, visited the town of Gabriel Mistral... a famous Chilean poet, ate lunch at a restaurant where they cook all of their food outside in ovens with energy from the sun (it was awesome and delicious!), and toured a pisco "plant?" where we tried 146-proof pisco (that's about 70% alcohol and it BURNED going down!). Don't worry... I took the tiniest sip possible of that stuff! The tour was actually pretty cheap and lasted the entire day. Supper that night was sandwiches at a local restaurant.

Sunday we went to Recova, the central market in La Serena, to do some shopping! They had a lot of vendors selling pretty much any type of artsy thing you could want as well as sweets and marmalades. After visiting Recova, we headed to the beach for the afternoon where we read, had a picnic, made sandcastles, and got burnt! That night we had a great meal at a Chinese restaurant for supper.

Monday morning we checked out of the hostel and went to explore the Plaza de Armas. There were a lot of old churches to look at, and we also visited a museum before eating lunch and then heading back to the bus station to load the bus for our long trip home. The ride home was quite amusing as we were all reading the same novel for our senior seminar class. All of us were withing about 100 pages of each other. It was quite comical when someone would gasp and one part and their seat partner would ask "what?!?" only to get the response of "keep reading!"

Skip ahead to Wednesday October 15. On this day our entire group returned to the stadium in Santiago to watch the futbol game between Chile and Argentina. This was a huge game because Argentina and Chile have a big rivalry as the two countries border one another. We were very forturnate to have obtained tickets to this game and even had GREAT seats! We were in the 13th row and could actually see the players this time! Everyone thought the game was going to be a blowout with Argentina on top as Chile hasn't beaten Argentina in something like 88 years. However, Chile scored the first goal in the first half and held on to the lead to win 1-0. Everyone went CRAZY! I can't even begin to describe the scene. It was absolutely nuts! As we were on the bus driving back to Vina I swear that the whole city of Santiago was out celebrating on the streets. It was definitely a scene I will remember the rest of my life.

On Thursday at 8:00 in the morning, a group of 13 of us boarded a bus for Mendoza, Argentina. It was about a 7 1/2 hour bus ride through the Andes Mountains, including a long stop at customs on the border, in order to reach Mendoza. We checked into our hostel and then headed to "Las Tinajas" for supper. Many people had told us that we could not go to Mendoza without eating at Las Tinajas. Las Tinajas was a restaurant-buffet. But when I say "buffet" do NOT think Old Country Buffet. No this place was amazing! It was really a nice, formal restaurant and we kind of felt under-dressed as we were eating. It was HUGE and had pretty much every kind of food you could ever imagine... salads, fruit, vegetables, pastas, empanadas, sushi, meat, cheese, desserts, etc. etc. etc. Argentina is known for their high-quality, grass-fed meat and this place did not disappoint the meat lovers. They had a HUGE grill of meat going with seriously every kind of meat in the world on it. I ate SO much food while I was there INCLUDING an entire plate of desserts! Everything was delicous. I was extremely full as I left the restaurant, but it was definitely an experience I would not have wanted to miss out on.

Friday morning we woke for breakfast in the hostel and then took a taxi to the small village of Maipu to begin our "bike and wine" tour. For only $10 we all rented bikes and took off with our map directing us along the route of vineyards. At the first stop we were given a tour of the winery and were able to try one of their wines. At the next place we were able to try their homemade chocolates and marmalades as well as sample their flavored liquors... we tried dulce de leche with banana, coconut, mint, and coffee. Everything was delicous! We continued on our tour through the beautiful, tree-lined streets of Maipu, stopping at various vineyards as we arrived to them. We all really enjoyed the relaxing 4-hour tour immensely!

That afternoon we had a tour of "La Cabana" factory which apparently makes the best chocolate in all of Mendoza. It was amazing! We sampled chocolates and I was so busy snapping photos of all of the action going down on the floor that I wasn't even listening to the tour guide! Afterwards we were able to shop in the store. For supper that night we all cooked a meal together in the hostel. It consisted of fresh-made guacamole dip and chips, cooked zucchini, and oven-roasted chicken that we stuff with a salsa we had bought at one of the vineyards on our bike & wine tour. It was all delicous!

Saturday morning five of us loaded into a jeep for the drive to Cerro Arco to parapente (a.k.a. paraglide)! It was so much fun. After getting all decked out in the correct gear, my guide got the chute in the air and we proceeded to run off the hill. We were lifted up into the air and thus began our 20-30 minute descent. It was so cool being able to see everything around including the Andes Mountains. I took tons of pictures and am really glad that I decided to do it. That night my friend and I bought our supper at a supermarket for approximately 4 bucks. Food in Argentina was cheap, cheap, cheap!

Sunday was a day for touring Mendoza. We bought chocolate from La Cabana, visited four of the five plazas and ate lunch at one of them, had coffee at a cafe, ate supper at a local restaurant (I split a sandwich and gnocchi with a friend), and ended the day with double-cone ice cream cones! The cone was actually two cones connected together, so you could pick two different kinds of ice cream... I chose SUPER manjar and white chocolate! Then we headed back to the hostel to grab our stuff and preceeded to walk to the bus station for our over-night bus ride back to Vina. What an experience! Since we were driving through the mountains, the bus driver apparently thought we were freezing cold, so the heater was turned on full blast and guess who happened to be sitting right over it. Yeah that's right... me! I could not sleep at all. We got to customs at 1:30 a.m., got off the bus so they could make sure we were bringing anything illegal back into the country, and finally left the place around 3:30 a.m. Thankfully, I was able to sleep most of the way back and also caught a couple hours of sleep before my 11:00 a.m. class! I absolutely LOVED Mendoza and if given the opportunity would love to return in the future.

Since Mendoza my life has been pretty low-key. We had two big mid-term essays due last week which I was happy to be done with. This past Saturday I went to La Feria with my host-mom which was basically like one big farmer's market with all of the freshest fruit and vegetables imaginable. All of it was super SUPER cheap too! We bought a kilogram (1.6 pounds) of strawberries for less than a buck! I'm really gonna miss those prices when I return to the states. That night I got together with a few friends and we cooked fajitas and fruit pizza together which was a lot of fun. We couldn't quite find all of the ingredients we needed for our fruit pizza, so it actually consisted of sugar cookies with the frosting and a piece of kiwi and strawberry on top. They were delicious none-the-less.

This past Sunday was election day in Chile. I went with my host-mom and sister to vote. One thing that I find really interesting here is that once a person registers to vote, they are required to vote during each election for their entire life. If they do not vote for some reason or another they are forced to pay a fine. I think that is one of the big reasons that the percentage of chileans who vote is so low in Chile. It was really interesting to observe the crowds of people arriving at the voting center to cast their ballots. Ever since women were given the right to vote here in Chile, men and women have voted in separate places. So the women would enter the builiding to vote and their husbands/boyfriends/etc. were left waiting outside. In addition, the voting centers the people vote at are further divided by neighborhoods and first letter of the first last name. As a result, there were approximately 25 different voting centers throughout the city of Vina. Later that afternoon my family taught me to make a delicious torta. It was basically a pie with a filling of walnuts and manjar. I will have to make it for all of you when I return!

Today I went to St. Peter's school, the school that I will be volunteering at for the remainder of the semester. St. Peter's is an English immersion school for a grades 1-12. I helped in 2 English classes consisting of 4th and 1st graders. I really enjoyed it. Especially when all of the kids started calling me "Miss Abby" and the 1st graders all ran up and toppled me with hugs! In addition to helping with a couple English and social science classes, I am really excited to help out in the 9th grade biology course. It should be a great learning experience!

I guess that pretty much sums up my life of the past month! Sorry to have kept you all waiting and wondering! This weekend our entire group of 28 students, our directors, their children, a few professors, and 5 other students from our university are heading south to Chiloe for a week. We are going to have a pretty jam-packed schedule, but I am looking forward to it. I hope that all of you are doing amazingly well and I will try to do a better job of keeping you updated!

Goal for the week: To successfully register for my spring classes tomorrow! AHH!!!