Weekend fun and Santiago Lovin'

Another 4 day weekend is coming to a close in Santio-smogo in this lovely season of fall/winter and I, as usual, am here to recap the events of said weekend before they flee from my head with fleeting time. Unfortunately, the current lack of camera leaves this blog entry (and likely the next several to come) photo-less so I'll try and write as riveting-ly as possible so as to make up for said visual aids :).

Friday night Lindsey and Christine and I headed to our soccer team asado out in the comuna of Peñalolen of Santiago. Peñalolen has a very mixed reputation and we quickly learned why. While part of the comuna is very run down and definitely did not appear as somewhere I would want to be by myself ever, the part we went to was a gated community and a house equally as nice as my house back in Long Beach! Talk about contrast! After an hour in the car to get form Las Condes to Peñalolen, party due to rush hour and partly due to getting lost, we arrived to meet some members of our current team as well as some women who had previously been on the team but aren't right now for various reasons. We learned that the women on our team are actually quite a bit older than us (30s) and almost all married with children. As it turns out, they were all engineering students at la Universidad de Chile together and that's when the team started. It was great to be able to meet, talk to, see, and get to know the members of our team outside of just our weekly 1 hour games and I love when I get the opportunity to speak Spanish for a prolonged period of time (which is harder than you would think to find opportunities to do).

The next day, however, it seems my stomach did not in fact enjoy the asado very much. After a somewhat miserable/lack of movement/napping for quite a while however, I pretty much felt back to normal but conceded to lounging around for the rest of the day just to ensure everything was completely better. The rest of Saturday was spent watching silly movies, skyping with Jason and my Daddy, and eating stomach friendly foods.

Sunday, having purged my body of whatever had previously made it unhappy, I spent the day attempting (with only minor success) to do some reading before I received a message from my friend from Long Beach and Arrowbear, Karen, telling me that she and her boyfriend, Jon, had arrived to Santiago after DAYS of buses from Ecuador. Giddy with excitement, I ventured to a very cute little part of comuna Bellavista that I had previously never seen to meet them at their hostel running into a giant hug from Karen! We ventured back to my apartment for an impending Mac and Cheese making fiesta with Lindsey, Christine, and the newly returned from Brazil Gina. We made some absolutely delicious homemade mac and cheese (actually we made wayyyy too much) and indulged.

Today, I met Karen and Jon in the early evening and we walked towards the center of the city, somewhere I had never really been in the evening and is gorgeous when it is all lit up! Santiago really has grown on me so much! The city I originally just saw as any other big city has become something beautiful that I truly am going to miss. However, it's looking like I won't be doing anymore big trips out of Santiago besides day trips so I have a good 3.5 weeks to enjoy it! On the way to meet Lindsey in Plaza de Armas for Peruvian food dinner (something Lindsey has been talking about probably since February) we stopped at a shopping center that was solely musical instrument stores as Karen is in the market for a cello. I got giddy like a kid in a candy shop. I can't believe I've gone this long without playing an instrument and absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on my instruments when I return home. While waiting for Lindsey to arrive, we sat on a bench in the bustling, lit up Plaza. US cities don't have places with that kind of atmosphere of central plazas surrounded by old and gorgeous buildings where people gather. It's such a very South American thing that I have grown to really like! After a successful Peruvian dinner (I ate avocado stuffed with chicken!) we grabbed some ice cream and chatted a bit before parting ways to head home.

It really is awesome catching up with Karen and hanging out with her and Jon down here! I believe we are going to go for a hike someday this weekend in the Andes which should be absolutely gorgeous! It's so crazy to just happen to be living in the same South American country and city as them for this month! I plan on taking full advantage of enjoying it!

It's really crazy how close my departure from Chile/return to CA has become now. Everything people told me was true: just when you are starting to feel really comfortable and beginning to truly truly love Santiago, it'll be time to leave. But, here's to the next 3.5 weeks! I'm going to enjoy this as much as possible before returning home my incredible friends and family and the gorgeous Southern California summer!