Ready for some good aire

It's been a little while since I last wrote in here, so I've either been really busy and haven't had time to write, or not that much has happened. I think it's a mix of the two. Last week Tuesday my family celebrated Rodrigo's birthday, and I made him a cake(from a box) and got a bottle of wine for him.
Everyone was very impressed that A) I created a cake with cappuccino frosting from "scratch" and B) I didn't use a fire and burn down the kitchen. It was fun hanging out with the family and play the game, "Let's see how much Spanish Ben understands tonight" which I play quite a bit. At the end of Tuesday's festivities Rodrigo proclaimed, "continuaremos el viernes" so Friday I got a call from Rodrigo and I met up with him and his friends after work. I shifted from understanding and being understood to being lost. But all in all it was a great night.
Then it seems lately after having my Chilean experience I went back to the comfort of my gringo friends and hung out with Vinnie and Steve Saturday for Vinnie's birthday. We went to Vitacura which is in the "nice" part of Santiago. Or as I thought, the "Phoenix" or "Miami" section of Santiago. The buildings, the American chain restaurants, the car dealerships, the prices put me right back to the US, except the Spanish language part. But as we all know, there are sections of Miami and Phoenix where speaking English will make it difficult to move around.
Monday, Steve, Vinnie and I went to a restaurant called Las Vacas Gordas which translates to The Fat Cows. Lonely Planet has it as one of the top five restaurants in all of Chile, and it was great. I ate so much meat that I was still full around dinner time, and breakfast the next day. I'm not eating a lot of meat down here so the overwhelming amount of steak, chicken and chorizo with mashed potatoes. A great place to visit everyone once in a great while otherwise I will be broke, 10 pounds heavier, and have an assortment of health problems. But I don't see anything wrong with once a month or so.
This week I'm basically planning for my trip to Buenos Aires and day dreaming about my winter break trip which Vinnie Steve and I will undertake July 13th - August 3rd or so. We're going to go north to Peru, hiking, camping, surfing and relaxing. You know, we'll need the vacation from.....oh yeah, we're working down here.
Friday I take off and will be meeting a friend from UW-Madison in Argentina. I'll be staying at Hostel Estoril, which is a couple blocks from Rachel's place, I think. Buenos Aires will be mine from Friday afternoon until Tuesday morning, when I return to Santiago. I've heard the air has cleared up so I will be able to see the sights. Last weekend the city was covered in smoke, I haven't confirmed that the city was renamed Aires Malos last weekend, but I have my suspicion.
That's about all for now, I hope everyone had a great Earth Day by recycling, turning off the light when leaving a room, walking, I enjoyed my day by seeing this picture on the front page. We have some work to do here in Santiago.