In the immortal words of Anna Farnsworth: Shenanigans

Usually I blog after a fun an exciting weekend, summarizing the work/school week in a relatively boring sentence. However I certainly cannot do that today. On tuesday we learned that our class had been canceled and the professor only emailed ned for some reason. Everyone else woke up and got ready, just to find out that we didnt have to go to school. So instead we decided to take a day exploring Valparaiso. We wandered around the hills for a while and made it to this outdoor mural museum. The museum was pretty cool but the murals outside the museum were amazing. You are probably sick of me yapping about all the wall art down here, but it is absolutely fascinating.

Around noonish we got hungry and decided to stop at a famous restaurant called J Cruz that everyone had recommended to us for chorrillana, a traditional Chilean dish with french fries onions steak sausage and a fried egg on top. Delicious. Little did we know, however, that today happened to be chorrillana day and that there was a news contest to find the best chorrillana. So Gabe Anna and I were sitting there when 4 news teams show up out of no where. They start filming and then we get interviewed by two different networks. Of course our spanish was not perfect (when they asked me to give it a grade all I said was "The best the best") but we were having a great time and laughing our heads off. We hung around for a little while longer and then headed off to the old folks home that we volunteer at to play bingo. That night we went to a friends house to have sushi and hang out. Sure enough when the nightly news came on, after all the depressing real news, there were the gringos eating chorrillana. We instantly became stars. That night a neighbor called me to tell me they saw me, then the next day our professor said he saw me, the librarian said she saw me, the nanny that works at my house saw me, and for the next couple of days the gringos were famous.

Last night me and anna decided to head to Valpo since we usually dont head in that direction. We met up with Mari, our friend who we havent seen in a while and she knew of a party somewhere. We made it to the club La Playa, around 2 and what an interesting club it was. It had this weird walk way to get into it then opened up into a bar. The upstairs was packed however so we ventured downstairs to another "bar" that resembled my basement at home. Uneven dirt/cement floor. Exposed ceiling beams, odd support pillars in random places, but the music was good and the people were great so it was well worth the trip. Around 430 me and anna decided to leave and we caught a micro right outside plaza sotomayor. After a quick trip we had to change micros and thats when the shenanigans really started. We got onto this packed micro and all of a sudden people started singing. First it was a song about the miners then they switched to the national anthem then they switched to god knows what. But it was fun with everyone singing along and pounding out the beat on windows, floors, chairs, whatever. Finally made it home, exhausted but very content.

Oye Chile eres loco, y me encanta. Porque no hay una palabra para shenanigans en tu idioma?

Hasta Mañana

So it is now Sunday night and instead of finishing up the last bits of my politics paper I decided to write another installment of the good old blog. Since I last posted, the country has gone crazy for the rescued miners. They are all in good health and it has been really cool to see the entire nation behind them. On a more local front, school was school last week, except for one part of my business class. We went to the student business office which is a building that student clubs can rent space in for their startup companies. In addition these businesses can apply for university funding in order to help get their company off the ground. We met with three guys starting an interactive software company and it was amazing to listen to what these students had created. It makes me think why our universities back home are giving all sorts of different clubs money while no one is getting any university funding to start their own business. Im all for giving out money so that students can enjoy doing something they are passionate about while in college, but I dont know of many people that leverage their experience in college clubs into a job after graduation. Every student who rents space in this office has clear goals for how they will run and expand their business when school is over. It was a really cool little field trip from our typical lecture style class. Once the field trip was over we were free for the weekend. Thursday night we had a little asado (BBQ) at gabes house to celebrate his brothers new grill. Delicious food and great company followed by some dancing in downtown Viña. Friday was a very relaxed day for me, sleeping in and then going to play some futbol on the beach with Ned and Anna. My sister and her kids arrived friday night to help plan for my brothers birthday. We hung around and talked for a while and I picked her brain about the mine rescue because she works for the president and her job for the past three months was to manage all the press located at the San Jose Mine. She had a ton of stories that we couldnt see on tv. That night we all went downtown to our friend Javis house for a pre. Accomplishment of the night: I took my first colectivo home, why it took me this long, I do not know. The following day was the day of my brothers birthday party. We went to the supermarket in the morning and bought an obscene amount of party food. I got excited. I hung out for the rest of the day and helped him prepare for the festivities. The party was scheduled to start around 9 so Christian lit the grill as the first guest showed up. From then on there was nothing but amazing food until the party ended (which i will get to in a second). No one really showed up til around 11, typical chilean style, but once the party got going to really got going. It was so much fun hanging out with all his friends, listening to music, and of course eating an amazing barbeque. We had a ton of steak, pork, chicken and also some of the best guacamoles and salsas ive ever had. And of course the birthday cake that was probably about 2 feet in diameter. Add a couple of piscolas on top and it made for one hell of a 25th birthday party. People kept coming and going and before I knew it the clock struck four. Around five most of the partiers had left and Christians closest friends stayed. I guess some got the drunchies cus around 530 we threw another steak on the grill. It wasnt until the birds started chirping that we began to clean up and by the time everyone left and I finally went to bed it was 730 am and the sun was fully shining. Oh what a night. Unfortunately my sisters kids were running around the house at 10am which made it somewhat difficult to sleep. I got up and started hung around until we had lunch around 3. Lunch with the family outside was a perfect way to rap up the weekend. Plus the benefit of a great Pats game today to give me a little taste of home. On to another week in Chile. Feliz cumpleaños hermano. Muchas gracias por su hospitalidad tu amistad y la vida que me muestras aca en Chile.

LOS MINEROS DE CHILE: The Chilean miners are finally rescued after 70 days underground

It is absolutely amazing to be here in Chile for such an important day. What an inspiring image of the people of this country. La fuerza es increible
 

Driving on the moon

As I should have realized a long time ago, the United States is not the only country to celebrate Colombus day and in fact he did discover all of the Americas so it makes sense that they have a holiday down here as well. That being said the South Americans do little more to "celebrate" than the North Americans, but we do get the day off from school so that gave the cinco gringos the perfect opportunity to cross the Andes and spend a weekend in the wine country of Mendoza, Argentina. The trip started with an all night bus ride (with the quick midnight stop at customs) from Santiago Chile to Mendoza. Crossing the Andes at night was absolutely amazing. These mountains make the Rockies look like foothills. It looked like we were literally on the moon. We arrived around 6 am and walked over to our hostel. A couple hours later our friends from Buenos Aires arrived and we planned out our first day. Around 11am we packed up and headed to Mr. Hugo's the rental shop for our biking wine tour. For about 8 dollars we got to rent bikes and enjoy a couple of glasses of wine at the bike shop. Then we set out on the road and traveled for about a half our to our first vineyard. We got to take a really cool tour of the winery including the outdated fermentation tanks. Really cool. Then we got a wine tasting and lunch all for about 15 bucks. Afterwards we hopped back on the bikes and made our way to the next winery. Because we got a late start we didnt make the whole circuit which includes 9 wineries a distillery and a brewery. The group split up and Gabe Anna and I chose to go to the distillery, which also happened to be a chocolate factory and a marmalade factory. We got a tour and then we were able to try the liquors, chocolate and spreads. I've never been much of an after dinner liquor type person but these drinks were absolutely delicious. We headed back to return the bikes and enjoyed a couple more glasses of free wine before getting the bus back to town. We got back but unfortunately couldnt find a place to eat for the longest time. Finally Anna Gabe and I split from the group and found the best burgers I'd had since coming down here. We wandered back to the hostel via this giant plaza that was bustling with people and musicians and artisans at 1 am. The next day we decided to relax and wander around Mendoza. We walked to the second largest city park in south America and spent the day hanging out there. There were a ton of little shops and restaurants in the park as well as lakes and fields and of course many people out enjoying the beginning of spring. Inside the park is one of the Argentine national soccer stadiums built for the 1978 world cup so we decided to check it out. It was a really cool stadium and we were able to walk right in and down to the front row of seats. There was not a single person there and it was kind of eerily empty. Not until Anna stood on the railing in front of the stands did we realize there was even a security guard. Interesting note about Argentine soccer stadiums, they have moats around them so that the wild fans cannot jump onto the field. They also have both barbed wire and razor wire separating the cheap seats from the expensive seats in case anyone wants to start a riot, which is quite common at Argentine soccer games. After a quick nap in the park we headed back to the hostel stopping at a couple cool plazas along the way. That night we did some more exploring around the city and finally stopped for dinner at a traditional Argentine barbeque. This includes some amazing steak but also kidney and intestine...not so delicious. The following morning we woke up early to meet our guide for our day in the mountains but in traditional south american fashion they were 2 hours late. No worries we hung out and played cards until they showed up. But it was well worth the wait. We bussed into the mountains (45 minutes) then started trekking up around all over these hills. After a bit of hiking we made it to our first repelling site. I'd never repelled before but it was quite the cool experience. We also got to rock climb there and after a delicious lunch we capped of the trip with a visit to the hot springs. We just barely made it home as the guides lost our transport, however we made it back safely and they bought us a beer for the miscommunication. That night we went to a Iberian festival in the Spanish plaza. It was a wild little festival with everything from tapas to paella to spanish bagpipers. Who knew they had bagpipers in spain. The next morning we woke up and caught the bus home after another amazing and fun filled weekend. As I am writing this I am watching the rescue of the chilean miners who have been trapped undergroud for 69 days now, the exact time that I have been in this country. It is a truly amazing and inspiring show of bravery and patriotism. CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE VIVA CHILE!!!!

Fly over

Today as I was sitting in the courtyard of the local elementary school where the gringos volunteer, a bird shat on my head and left shoulder. What a way to start the weekend. Que Lata.

La festival de mil tambores

This weekend was another fun filled couple of days around Viña. It all started on thursday with the going away party of Gabes sister. We hung out at his house for a while with all of our Chilean friends as well as the gringos. We went dancing and stayed out til the club closed which down here is around four thirty a.m. Since Ale was leaving we decided to keep the party going and head back to her house. I finally had to head to bed around 6 but the party kept going. What a great night and a great way to say adios and send her on her way to the States and Europe. As a result the next day didnt start until 2 pm when the nana knocked on my door asking if I wanted lunch. After a delicious lunch the gringos headed to Valpo for the festival of mil tambores. It was a giant street festival with all sorts of different percussion groups performing. They also had body painters and a bunch of people were running around as living art. After hanging out in the square for a while, the bands started moving and it turned into this giant parade of drum groups. Every once in a while the band would stop and jam for a while before carrying on their way. We stuck with this group the whole way and after about 4 hours of walking we made it to the stadium where the parade finished up. There were jugglers and fire spinner guys and all sorts of people on crazy stilts in costume. All in all it was a really cool show and no street fair is ever complete without a man dressed as a baby juggling toilet plungers so I am really glad he decided to follow the same band we did. We were all pretty tired so after the festival we each headed home. Saturday started bright and early with our trip to Santiago. It was the most recent of our excursions organized by our program. This tour took us to the University of Chile, the national cemetery, and a detention camp that was used during Pinochets military dictatorship. It was kind of eerie to see a beautiful park on the ground where just thirty years before people had been horribly tortured by the government. After an always fun bus ride home with the best bus buddy ever, anna, we started our next adventure to Reñaca. And what an adventure it was. Reñaca is the next town over but for some reason it is never easy to get there. After waiting about 20 minutes for the right bus to come, we took it to the wrong stop, and then had to walk back towards town to get another bus. We finally made it to our friends house and had a lovely little gathering with the Chileans. Another night of dancing was ahead of us but when we got to the club the line to get in was forever so we headed back for an early night (330). However, I wasnt late enough for my parents who went to a wedding last night and got home around 5 am. They of course did not wake up til around 130 this afternoon. Looks like the parents were the party animals this weekend. But as a result I did get to try my first Chilean Chinese food. Fear not its the exact same as in the States. Today was a study day, yes those do exist down here, because tomorrow we have a big test in our environmental science class. Should be fun. Well that caps another fun weekend in Viña. Las horas las dias las semanas mueven perfectamente lento, que bakan.