A quick review

So not only was there a lack of a history test on Thursday, there was also a lack of classes in general at UV. In their place, I stumbled upon piles of history and philosophy students huddled in groups in random corners and stairways of the facultad, drinking cheap wine and beer, eating empanadas and completos, smoking a variety of things, and being generally content in the class-less environment. I did have Spanish class, though, so it wasn't a complete vacation. Afterward, I trekked through the nearby Jumbo in search of Jew food ingredients since there is an epic multicultural dinner in the works--between myself, Alex, Minna, Cristian, Graciela, and Cristian's friend Juan, we should be finding ourselves swimming among Jewish, Irish, Finnish, Chilean, Mexican, and Italian yumminess. Unfortanetly, Chile doesn't seem to believe in most Jewish food, so the search continues...and the dinner is temporarily suspendida.

Thursday night poker with friendly Chileans who live above a grocery store (it's like my dream...) may become a weekly thing. I was even treated to some of Carlos' banana bread--he's so domestic! Afterward, there was a bit of a Carleton reunion at Huevo, where we happily danced the night away--and I managed to avoid spilling my piña colada on my shoe this time. The next day, I ecstatically located the guide book-highlighted Arab restaurant in Viña and purchased some super-exciting hummus that I'd been craving. Later that night, Graciela and I headed over to Cristian's apartment for a party that interestingly included our history class TA and his girlfriend. We somehow managed to spend a good six hours crouching around the potato chips and eclectic assortment of copetes, singing various national anthems (it's quite a multicultural group, as has already been established), taking pictures, and chatting it up in that silly Chilean dialect. I got to poke fun at my impressively drunk ayudante, and I may even have secured myself a passing grade on the test...if we ever end up having it, that is. And even though I sometimes feel a little confused by my friendship with Cristian and Minna--or really confused, depending on how much "tutoring" has taken place that day--I had a really good time with them and everyone else, and I honestly feel like they've become more than just missionary friends. I'm still not exactly sure how or why that happened, but it's a pretty amazing feeling to suddenly find yourself surrounded by a roomful of boisterously-friendly Chileans et. al. who genuinely like you and enjoy spending time with you--and with whom you can actually participate. It made me smile. Plus, I got to tell my host parents this morning that I got home at 5am, which I think scored me points with my mom.

Alex came over for lunch today to meet the parents--for some reason the usually overflowing apartment was just the four of us, but that probably made things less overwhelming. It's comforting to have someone wholeheartedly agree with my at times luke-warm feelings about my family situation. I think I made Alex feel super-excited about his own family (who had sushi the other night, by the way). Graciela, Alex, and I then headed off to buy bus tickets--we're headed for Valdivia and then Pucón this coming Wednesday for some brewery touring, volcano summiting, mountain biking, and general Lake District amazingness. The plan is to be back early Monday morning so we can still enjoy the Fiestas Patrias (September 18 is Chilean Independence Day). Later I wandered around Valpo in search of La ciudad y los perros, a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa that Cristian and I have to read for our project in history. I can't believe how little time I've spent exploring that city--it's an amazing place, especially on bright, sunny Saturdays when the streets and plazas are overflowing with antiques-vendors, used-book sellers, random Fiestas Patrias accoutrements, all kinds of food and shoes and packages of pills. I finally decided on a version that's a bit shorter than what Cristian has--I haven't quite decided if that was a good idea or not since I just realized that the index doesn't quite match up with the page numbers.