Drinking, eating, hiking, and speaking Spanish with Chileans?
-Check(Friday night)
Getting out of the city and going on a 5 hour hike in the Andes?
-Check (Saturday morning)
Going to a BBQ(asado) at your friend's house and sharing stories with other CIEE'ers?
-Check (Saturday night)
Going on a vineyard tour, meeting some super outgoing Georgians who invite us back with their tour van to a wine fest and sample more wine, watch a rodeo, and see apopular Chilean Rock n' Roll concert?
-Check(Sunday afternoon and night)
After doing the math, I figured: pisco+ food+ meat+ white bread+ exercise+ a bit of sun + friends - sleep = an awesome weekend.
It started off after class on Friday chit chatting with mi madre until around 11:00 pm when Juan Pablo, or Jota picked me up and we went to a birthday celebration for the wife of his best friend. I really didn't know what I was getting into, but I was excited because I talked with Jota on the phone totally in Spanish, and felt proud of myself. We got to a bar and I was greeted by about 30-40 friends and family of the birthday girl, a piscola, and chips and guacamole. I talked with one of Jota's friend from college for quite a while(en Español) until the conversation turned towards, her trying to arrange private lessons for free in exchange for Spanish lessons. I really didn't know how to tell her that if I go to a bar, I can speak Spanish, and left to use the bathroom. Luckily when I returned, she had moved on to some other friends. I then talked with a couple, and the guy explained to me, that some people feel that they can learn English by being touched by a native speaker. I spoke with his wife for awhile, and got a huge ego booster, when she told me I spoke good Spanish and was very nice. I felt great then, not only because I was meeting new people, speaking Spanish, but also trying to blend in by drinking piscolas. Then finally Jota and Stephanie(his wife) sat down by me and we talked about what I've been up to the last couple weeks. And then they brought us some sushi and around 2:30, some torta(birthday cake). I left the party to people questioning my early exit at 3:30am, to which I told them I had to wake up in 3 hours and then go on a 5 hour hike in Cajón del Maipo. Then my new friends agreed I should probably go home, and remember these friends are all at the minimum of fives years older than me.
Saturday morning I woke up, and met up with three girls from my program who teach in Valparíso. We got to our destination and went on an incredible hike. Ok, so it wasn't incredible, but it was amazing. The views we got to see were breathtaking. Some of the highlights were taking a break on the edge of a cliff overlooking a huge valley,
(Break by a cliff)
lunch by a water reservoir, almost slipping down the entire trek down from the mountain, and sweating a lot.
(Head geologist Benjamin Creagh examines and explains the differences between the aging process of two different rocks. Action picture!)
After our adventure in the mountains we met each other on the main street, 11 de Septiembre and went to Vinnie's house for un asado. That was fun to see everyone again and share stories, and follies of our teaching experiences.
(Vinnie: head chef, host and Washington Redskin fan from Texas)
Sunday was spent letting things happen. We(the four of us, Kat, Kelly, Kathleen and I) went out to eat at Schopdog where I had your basic Chilean salad of lettuce, an avocado, olives, tomato, corn and some chicken with a lot of mayo, topped with avocado oil, lemon juice and salt. Then we went to Chonca y tor vineyard.
(One of the vineyards, where they put roses on the outside to serve as warnings. The roses will get infected and die before the grade vines, and they use to tell the wine makers what color of wine each grape vine would produce)
Did our tour, sampled three good wines, and enjoyed the views and the cellars. The cellars here in this vineyard were much more complex than the ones I visited in Australia. Here they are humidity controlled and temperature controlled to keep the moisture level consitent. A few intersting things about the cellar. The brand is called Casillero Del Diablo because people use to steal bottles, so the owner spread a rumor about the devil being down in the cellar and he'd dress up like the devil and run around and scare the thieves away. Then no one came back in the night to steal anything. I thought that was great.
And during this tour on of the other guys on the tour told me he's been to Cedarburg to visit a client and ice fished. We got to talking and after the tour he offered to take us to a wine festival happening in the town center. So of course we acceted his offer. It was the Fiesta del Vino en Pirque 2008 and for those of you who don't speak Spanish that translates to "try every wine they have at the festival, make friends with the wine makers and finish the bottles with them when it is time to stop serving." Or "The wine festival in Pirque"
(Here's the tent where everyone sampled various local wines, olive oil and cheeses)
The couple that took us under their wing for the night were from Atlanta and they knew no Spanish and had a guide drive them around showing them where to go. This couple was great. At one point in the night Paige said she wanted more wine, but we didn't have any more tickets, so I took her to the guy who told me I could try every wine his winery had, and explained that Paige was my mom and she came to visit me(I am studying at U Chile) and I thought she'd like the one I had. Paige loved having me as her "son" for the night and was impressed with my Spanish speaking skills. Scott was a character in his own way. I'll simply explain him by telling what he bought at the festival. He bought spurs, cowboy boots, and tried to buy a big cowboy hat, but couldn't find a hat big enough. He said he tried to say he has a big melon by saying, "grande melon-o." Around 8:00, Mario Guerrero took the stage and delighted the Chilean crowd and impressed me with his rock n roll concert. Hector(Scott and Paige's guide) said he was a famous Chilean singer.
(Mario Guerrero, rocking out for all the Backstage Betties)
After talking with Hector for some time, I got complemented for the second time in three days on my Spanish skills. I was on cloud 9, not only had I sampled plenty of wine, but a Chilean told me I was pretty good at Spanish. After sampling all the wine I came to two conclusions: one is that I like Carmenerè. It's a red wine specific to Chile. And two, wine has alcohol in it. Both conclusions will come in handy in the near future. Scott and Paige were amazingly generous and ended up getting us dinner, some beer and a ride back to my apartment. Since this relaxing afternoon jaunt to a winery turned into a late night exhibition, the girls missed the last bus home to Valpo Sunday night and left for home at 5:45 am because Kelly had to teach at 8:00am. Luckily she was just giving a test.
In other news:
After wandering around for awhile, I found an organic market. I met the owner and he said in 10-14 days they're getting their first shipment and will have a fully stocked store of organic and natural products. That will be nice. Currently ,they have coffee, rice cakes, pasta, and of course, creatine? Creatine, of course, when consumed makes you look like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment