Domingo 29 de agosto 2009

I am quite proud of myself and how much I have been keeping up with the blog lately. But if you all want to know, I ma using it as an excuse to procrastinate on my homework. I need to write a paper, its only two pages, but I just really don't want to do it. So I thought maybe if I got in the writing mood by starting out here then maybe it would be a little easier to start. And well the other problem is that I don't have caffeine to keep me motivated, no tengo mi chai té de Starbucks, es muy muy triste. BUT Starbucks is coming to Viña! On September 11, 2009 the first Starbucks in Viña del Mar is going to open. Yeah only a few more weeks and then I can have chai! But only on occasions because it is really expensive here.

So now to the actual reason I am posting. Yesterday (Sunday August 29th) we had a family lunch, but it was only the kids, no parents! It was held at Constanza's house and the guest list included: Constanza, Sergio, Marcelo, Gabriel, Maite, Ignacio, Javiera, Erin, and I. It was quite an interesting day. Marcelo had thrown out his back the day before so he could barely walk, and since no one else could drive we all had to walk from Pili's house down to Constanza's. I felt so bad for Marcelo, he has been in a lot of pain, but despite that I still teased him about being an old man. So on the walk to Constanza's, we decided we needed to bring something, we didn't want to show up empty handed. So we went to all kinds of little stores to find some juice and fresh bread sticks type things, so more walking for poor Marcelo. So as the day already started a little crazy, it of course had to get more interesting once we got to Constanza's apartment. Once we arrived, we found out that there was a hurt cat on their patio. I guess Constanza in the morning had opened up the windows and her patio door to air out the house, and a cat came running in. The tried to catch it and it ran under the stove, but when it came in it already had a hurt leg. Finally they we able to catch it and put it out on the patio where it just laid down and shivered and looked very sick and hurt. Constanza gave it a bowl of milk and tried to feed it some pieces of ham but it wouldn't eat, so a clear sign it was pretty injured. So as we finally sat down to eat lunch, a woman came to the door asking if we had seen a little gray and white cat. She came in and claimed him and told us that the cat had jumped from a window or balcony from the second floor and must have landed on his leg and hurt himself. Why the heck would a cat just jump off the second floor, I think it might have been trying to commit suicide because where the apartment is there are no trees or anything where the cat would want to jump into. Who knows, but I hope the cat doesn't have any internal injuries or hopefully the owner took the cat to the vet. I don't even want to think if it died.

So for lunch we had mexican style food, we had all the fixings for burritos. Homemade guacamole, corn, veggies, and meat for everyone else. They were very good!

Then we had fresh fruit and raspberry ice cream for dessert, and coffee/tea. Erin of course had to bring her camera to lunch, so we took some family photos. They turned out pretty well, well minus my goofy look in almost all of them. It was fun though having all of us together, it is pretty rare since the younger kids always have training or games they have to play, so not much time spent with all of us in the same place.

Below (From left to right): Gabriel, Erin, Ignacio (in red in the front), Marcelo, Maite, me, Javiera, Constanza, and Sergio

Gabriel and I... this one is actually pretty good. Él es muy muy tierno! (he is very sweet)

All of us on the sofa... taking these pictures on the timer, turned out to be quite the ordeal

Gabriel was sitting on me in this one, thats why you can barely seen me!

We were listening to Michael Jackson. I call this the "Thriller" photo, Erin is MJ and Marcelo and I are the dead back-up dancers. And then of course there is Gabriel's hand right in front of my face, so nice of him! He loves to tease me!

This is our gangster photo, I mean its obvious right. ;)

I also thought I would post a few more photos of the house and area in Viña. I need to take more, but it is a slow process.

This is the outside of my house. Its blue and I love it.

This is the entryway/entrance into the house. Each house is gated in to keep them a little more secure. On the left is where Pili and TuTí keep their cars. The little red one is Pili's. And then on the left, closer is the side wall of the neighbors house and then if you keep walking up that path, our house is on the left as well. But the neighbors house has its own gate, we don't share.

This is the view right outside our house, from the outside gate. Yes everyday I walk down my hill with the amazing view of the ocean!

This is a side street near our house, its right off of Pedro Montt, the street I live on. I walk this street everyday on my way to the metro station.

Erin took this photo and I stole it from her. This is the view from one of the windows in the house. That big building is an apartment building and then next to that you can see the ocean and a ship out there. But the sky was just too beautiful to now show you all.

One more thing to share with you all, it was so cute. I wish I had my camera to take a photo though. I went for walk along the ocean this morning and as I was walking back up my hill, almost to my house, I saw a dad and his little son (maybe 5 years old) walking down the hill across the street. It was so cute because the little boy was dressed exactly like a pirate! I really had the urge to yell, "Argh matey" to him... but I didn't want to come off as a crazy gringa.