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.