Superbowling, California style. . .in Chile!

Last night can pretty much be summed up as hilarious. A few EAP kids really wanted to watch the Superbowl, so we looked up where it was playing and found a place in Providencia and decided a group of us would go! We probably could have figured how funny it would be if we had looked at the website in detail before, but it was a great surprise! The bar we went to was called "California Cantina" Sports Bar. As it turns out, it is owned and run by 3 best friends from California. As it also turns out, probably every single US native in Santiago was at this bar for the superbowl! We got there at 7 for an 830 kickoff and got the literal last table possible before they shut the gate and called in the bouncer to turn people away.


It was seriously like walking into California in the middle of Santiago. You felt out of place if you spoke spanish. We walked up and the blonde hair blue eyed owner said, rather loudly, "Hey guys! How's it going! You meetin' a group or here for the game?" in the most unaccented English I've heard from anyone but EAP kids since arriving. We all just started laughing! Our waitress was the epitome of a California girl, complete with having attended SDSU. The food was Mexican, something we have all been missing like crazy! We ordered a few pitchers of beer, nachos, and burritos and several people marveled at the availability of hot sauce (non-existant in Chile).Excitement for burritos!

Seriously, everyone in this place spoke English. They boasted themselves as being the only REAL sports bar in Santiago, and it was so weird to translate back to English being the default language when we were addressing people we didn't know in Santiago. A lot of people said it was the perfect place to go when you're homesick, but I kind of disagree. If anything it made me feel a little homesick, but in a oh my goodness Californians and Americans are hilarious kind of way.

Overall, it was a super fun night! It was so great to be able to sit there with friends, eat a burrito, drink a glass of good beer, and watch some all American football! It was like being in ESPN Zone with the cheering and booing and infamous American roudiness, it felt like a tiny slice of home! We also decided that that is where we must return for March Madness and the Fourth of July; and now we know that at least one Mexican restaurant exists in Santiago!

Today I mainly just went to class, watched a really powerful Chilean movie about the time around the Allende-Pinochet era, worked on my cultural project, and wandered Ñunoa for a little with a few friends while successfully buying a replacement earring for my beloved green cartilage piercing earring that disappeared on Saturday :(. I actually like my new little blue one, but we'll see if it upsets my ear! Time to hit the sack early in order to wake up for an early morning run and another full day!