Everyday is an adventure

So tough with my Mapuche headband! Yeah be jealous! ;)

This doesn't look tough, but trust me it is!

Below are all photos of Olmué... but just of the greenhouse and that surrounding area. I got lazy of pulling out the camera...yes it is possible with me! :)

It was a cloudy day, but behind those cerros (hills) are more larger mountains. So pretty though!

I love the mixture here of Palmas (palm trees and pine trees)

Traditional wooden child toy of Chile:

This is Erin attemtping...absolutely hilarious to watch her

TuTí was an expert...many years of practice ;)

There was a little competition going between Ignacaion and TuTí... had to prove they each could do it :)

These are the traditional instruments of the Mapuche to make their beautiful music

Another traditional wooden toy for kiddos in Chile. TuTí was able to make it spin on the ground and then pick it up and keep it spinning on his hand. So awesome. ¡Qué asombroso! He told us stories of playing this game a boy and how they were ruthless with one another. Silly boys!

Cute little flowers! It made me smile to see daisies and pansies in this greenhouse. Good times with Hannah, watching her garden. :)

TuTí was SO excited to see the camera! Haha, not really, I can't believe I was able to catch this.

This is Pili and Ignacio. Such wonderful people, ALL of the family is though!

Ignacion. Muy tierno y caballeroso! (Very cute/sweet, and such a gentleman) :)

Hola mi familia y amigos! Todo está bien en Chile pero hoy hace frio frio fio como helado! ¿Entiendes? I just said hello everyone, everything is good here in Chile but today is freezing...like ice!

Not to much has been going on lately. Sunday was fun though. Erin and I were just planning on spending the day at the beach and reading or taking a walk or something, just enjoying the sunshine, but our family decided to take a little day trip to a country town called Olmué (pronunciation: uhlmuway - if that makes any sense haha). It was about 20 minutes away, but it was a neat little town. The main road to get there is covered with ferías/artsesanías, fruit and veggie stands and restaurants. Oh and I guess this place is known as a big producer of fruits and veggies, but especially fruits. I could instantly tell because there were orchards everywhere and pretty much every house had at least one fruit tree. Once we got to Olmué, we went to a little greenhouse place. It had an amazing view of the mountains, well what they considered to still be the hills. It was so lush and green, so pretty. And it was almost like being back home and going to Edwards greenhouse and looking at wonderful flowers and plants. It was fun just getting to hang out with our family, even though it wasn't all of them, just Tutí, Pili, and Ignacio. Then after that, we drove around Olmué a little more and I guess there is a hill/mountain that you can hike up called "La campana" in the national reserve there. You can take a guide and hike it up by foot or by horse or be brave and do it on your own. But I have been told that hiking in Chile can be dangerous without a guide (guía) because they don't have proper signs to tell you the trail or areas that are prohibited or can be a danger. Lizette told us about one girl, can't remember where they were, but in some larger national reserve hiking and she saw a friend who was an expert hiker climb up a more dangerous way to the top. And rather than turning around like the rest of the group this girl really wanted to get to the top and didn't realize how inexperienced she was, and she ended up falling off the mountain and she died. It was such a scary story to hear, especially since we heard about it like our second day here in Chile, but it is an eye opener to be SUPER careful when hiking, especially for me since I am really wanting to experience hiking here. I promise everyone I will be careful. :) But anyways, the reserve was beautiful and I hope Erin and I can go back, even just for another day trip and attempt the hike on foot or even be brave and do it by horse. I don't know how i feel about going up a mountain on horse though, that might be a little dangerous for an extremely clumsy (torpe) person like me. :)

But anyways, we found out that Tutí had a sister that lived in Olmué. Well she just passed away this past February, but her husband still lives in Olmué. They own a little bed and breakfast type business. They have a building that can hold conferences equiped with computers and that lot. And then they have a big dining/restaurant area with a fireplace on one end with the most comfortable furniture! And then outside they have one heated swimming pool and hot tub, that is all covered and tented in. And then they have another open air pool that isn't heated that is by these little buildings like little cabins for people to rent and stay in. They each have a little kitchen and a little living area. They were real cute. We met more of the family here and we ended up staying at the restaurant for once (a snack or can be dinner, but in this case a snack). We had tea and coffee and chocolate cake. I wish I had taken a picture of my slice of cake, it seriously was HUGE! I couldn't even eat it all, I had to take it home and finish later. It was big enough for all five of us to eat. It was so good though...my first piece of cake (torta) here that I actually really liked and tasted like actual cake. :) So yeah, the ride home in the car was nice to. It was already dark, so we just listened to american (U.S.) music in the car, since they love american music here. It's kind of comforting and fun to be able to sing along to all the songs. And we talked about some of our favorite music. I learned that Pili has a lot of the same music taste as me, which is awesome! :) Sunday was a very long day... but it was very relaxing too. I love the county here, so nice and peaceful.

Needless to say but I was not looking forward to school on Monday. Nothing exciting happened there, but after that I had another taller/artesanía where I get to go to a workshop and make something. I signed up for "Mapuche Weaving" this time, and I had no idea what I got myself into! When we arrived at the workshop, which was awesome inside with all kinds of pictures of Mapuche people in their traditional dress and artifacts from their culture, there was Mapuche music playing, it was so relaxing and beautiful. I need to find some. Good studying music! Dad I think I might need to start you a list, so when I get back home you can have an array of new music all ready for me to put on my ipod. :) Anyways, a Mapuche woman (I think her name was Victoria - so sorry if I'm wrong, and most likely I am) came out and told us about their people and how this type of weaving we were about to do is how many of the Mapuche make a living. They make all kinds of things (headbands, bracelets, blankets, ponchos, sweaters, etc.) with this technique and sell their crafts in markets. Then another woman (don't know her name, they all just called her tía (aunt)), she showed us how to do the weaving. I watched so intently and it seemed pretty easy to me. Oh how I was wrong. I think it would have been better if I could have been trying the steps at the same time the woman was showing us, because I think I had the most problems out of everyone in the group. There were two little mapuche girls there trying to help us if we needed help, and they would just laugh and laugh everytime (which was like every other minute) that I stopped and needed help because I had messed up. It wasn't until the very end, like my last 10 rows that I FINALLY got the hang of it. Too bad I had no more time to work and had to stick with the ridiculous little headband that I had made. I was a little bummed too that we didn't get to pick our wool/yarn (lana) colors, but beggers can't be choosers right!

So after we all completed our weaving, and thankfully mine didn't turn out that bad in comparison to everyone else's, we sat down to have a little once with the Mapuches. They has made us their type of traditional Sopaipillas with like 7 different types of sauces to put on them. Their sopaipillas were different than the ones I have had, like the mexican style ones. These are not at crunchy, and are more like a puffed bread. The sauces were: two or three types of honey, a garlic sauce, two kinds of spicy chili sauce (SO rare to find spicy things here, and I was in love instantly), and a seafood sauce (sorry didn't try this one, but heard it was just amazing like the rest). They were SO good, I am not in love with Mapuche sopaipillas, I wish you all could try them! Oh and also we got to try a traditional alcoholic drink. It was called Multa, and multa because of what it is made with and how it is made. Yeah sorry thats I could understand from the guy, he spoke incredibly fast. Anyways, there were two types, a cinnamon one and then a more fruity one. Just from the smell I knew they were going to be strong, so I went with más suave (less strong, more smooth) fruit one. And it was still pretty strong. I just had to down it pretty much and smile and pretend like I really liked it. But one of the guys must have seen my instant reaction after drinking at, because he started to laugh at me. Yeah there was a lot of laughing and Brittany that evening. Nothing new right. :) My headband may not look like anything special, and it may be a little ugly, but I am so going to keep it and say that I did Mapuche weaving. It was all worth the experience! :)

Those are the only talleres that I get to do for the summer program, but I really hope I get to do more for the semester. They are so fun, and nice just to relax and attempt to do something crafty. :)

Today (tuesday, July 14) has been a very unproductive day! I always check right away in the mornings to see if the sun is out. I peak out through my burlesque style curtains to see if the sun is shining because that always starts the day out so great if it is. BUT, today there was no sun and only clouds, meaning that is was going to be FREEZING! The wind was just bone chilling today, and it was the first day in a couple of weeks that I remembered it is still winter here. So I am just planning on staying in today, doing my homework, bundling up in blankets and watching a movie and drinking hot chocolate. Yay for unproductive days!

Oh and I almost forgot, today in my culture class we started watching a movie about Chile in 1973, during the time right after Allende (communist leader in Chile) and when the government was shifting, and there was a little bit of a divide of the poor people that still wanted communism and Allende and then the other more wealthy people that were against it all. Anyways, this movie is called, "Machuca." It shows all of this from the perspective of some kids in colegio (junior high and highschool). We are finishing it tomorrow, but it is already so good. I think you all need to go find it and watch it. Then you can understand a little bit better the politics of Chile...because it really is confusing. Oh and it was funny, the family in the movie lives in Santiago and there is one line about talking about going on a little vacation to Viña and to the casino here. I laughed to myself, thinking gosh now that makes it real. I really am in Chile! It takes things like that somedays to wake me up and remember I'm in a completely different place. It's rad, no other way to put it. :)