Temblores!

So yesterdat (Friday, September 25, 2009) I felt my first temblor (or tremor, miniearthquake)! And I actually felt two in the same day!

The first one was around noon my time while I was at the ISA office in my tutor session for spanish literature. We were all just sitting there listening to the tutor and then all of a sudden I felt the mild shaking. It is a feeling I can't explain. It was funny though because everyone was super calm about it, like we all acknowledged that it was a temblor, but everyone looked over at Erin and she was just elated. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. I mean yeah it was neat, but I don't think I want to ever be in a huge earthquake, but it was a cool feeling.

And then the second one was last night, no idea the time. Maybe like midnight or 1am, and we were all watching Michael Jackson music videos and then we all felt a slight temblor, but not as prominent as the first. But I guess it also depends on where you are, in certain places you can feel them better. Like my house in Viña, its in the cerros (hills) and has been built to withstand earthquakes so you can't really feel them here. But the more close you are to downtown or by the ocean, I guess the better you can. Because way down underneath those areas is just sand, and probably eventually ocean water still, so you can feel the tremors better there since its a different kind of foundation.

It's kind of weird though, I guess we have had a small temblor each day of this past week, but it wasn't until yesterday that I felt them. Maybe now I will be more tuned in, so I can recognize that its a little earthquake.

Just thought you all might like to know. I mean Chile is known for having little tremors all the time, but its pretty cool to actually feel them. Erin is like all for feeling a huge earthquake, I'll pass on that one since I don't want any destruction done. But I feel kind of special now to know I have felt an earthquake... not everyone could say that! :)

Fiestas Patrias (el dieciocho)!

As usual I am always behind on writing in my blog... but this post is very eventful! Last weekend (september 18th and the rest of the weekend), well this is a big holiday in Chile. It's pretty much their independence weekend. Before this weekend I began to see flags popping up everywhere ad everyone showing their Chilean pride. Oh and if none of you know the chile flag looks like this:

It was a little bit like being at home... since the colors are the same, and I saw these colors everywhere! Anyways, so thursday night Constanza, Sergio, Marcelo, Erin and I went to one of the ramada or fonda... these are kind of like carnivals or fairs. They have games, like knock down the bottles and win a prize type, they sell food... which is pretty much all carne (meat). Also they have places where you can sit down, listen to music and eat and drink, and even dance the traditional dances.

This is the type of food you find at the fondas:

These are anticuchos or shishkabobs in english. But they lack veggies, so just meat on a stick basically. At the fondas, the air was filled with the smoke from the grills everywhere with these things grilling. I was in heaven!

Or if the people weren't selling anticuchos then it was empanadas de pino. Pino is a type of empanadas filled with a mixture of meat, eggs, and onions, And then also one whole olive (just for the flavor). So pretty much all the food sold had meat. They didn't even have empanadas de queso (cheese)... so yeah needless to say I just didn't eat that night. But I watched my whole family devour the anticuchos and empanadas and heard them raving about how good they were.

But just to add... empanadas are made with lots of fillings. Pino is the most common or cheese. But there is also: espinaca y queso (spinach and cheese) or champignones y queso (mushrooms and cheese)... yeah I love all the vegetarian kinds, especially the espinaca y queso, es mi favorito!

So one of the traditional drinks of Chile is called "chicha".... and below is what it looks like. It is a drink made from fermented fruit... its very sweet. And it only takes a bit. It has a very distinct taste, nothing like I have tasted before. Its good though, I barely even tasted the alcohol, probably the reason why it can be a dangerous drink.

This is another traditional drink, its called a "terremoto." And terremoto in spanish means earthquake. And all the terremotos that you drink after the first are called "replicas" or in english I guess it would be called the aftershocks. This is probably the most dangerous drink, because it is sweet and delicious, but very strong. You can drink a lot and not realize till after how tipsy you are. In this drink there is: pineapple icecream, pipeño ( a type of sweet fermented wine). I think there is another type of alcohol in it as well, but I can't remember what. It definitely lives up to its name though, trust me I know.

Alright so thursday night, we played some of the games at the fonda, walked around a bunch. One cool thing we saw were these men, they are called chinchineros, and they have a drum on ther back and they dance around and play. It was absolutely amazing. For their final, they spin around doing their dance and playing the drum. Way cool to see!

Below is a picture of what the organilleros look like. You can find them occasionally around the city, playing. But I guess they are usually accompanied by the chincheros. The organilleros are neat though, they always have a parrot with them. There is one that I hear in my neighborhood sometimes... and he always lets out his parrot when he knows people are watching. These two are very traditional to Chile.

Chinchero video (this is a video I found on youtube, just because I want you all to see how neat they are to watch, like how fast they spin!) You can also hear in the background the organillero music too.

This is another interesting thing we saw and that is very traditional to Chile, the dance la cueca. People would sit around and drink and listen to traditional music and then when they felt the urge just get up and dance the cueca with a partner. It's a very pretty dance to watch... of course I have no coordination and can't dance it.

The traditional clothes or men are called, huasos. It was neat to see people around town wearing these types of clothes. I am sure they had a reason, like to do performances or something, but it really made the city feel different. I loved it.

La Cueca (a youtube video of what the cueca looks like)

Alright so after we watched the chincheneros, we walked around until we found a place to sit down. The finda was packed with people and almost no place had places to sit down. We found one place with a live band, so the family ate meat while we all drank chincha. Then after that the night got interesting with terremotos. We just walked around while drinking the terremotos and having a blast. But the night had a drastic turn when Constanza got her purse (cartera) stolen. We all freaked out and looked around for it, but we ended up having to go to the carabineros (polieman) to report it stolen. She had soo much in ther too: money, wallet, license or id card, car key (expensive to replace), cd player for car, along with other little items she loved. There was a temporary carabinero house set up at the fonda, so we went there to report it. While there we watched the carabineros bring in a drunken young guy that was in handcuffs, like behind his back. He was yelling and moaning the whole time, like laying on the floor throwing a fit pretty much. All the carabineros were busy, so this guy took the opportunity to escape. I watched him as we walked out the door and started to run away. But then Javiera (my cousin, more like a sister though) came in and told the police that the guy ahd escaped. All the carabineros were men but one woman... if you can call her a woman. She was the most masculine woman I have seen, and all of the carabineros went after the man, but it was the woman who took the guy down. She terrified me. I made a mental note to never piss off a female carabinero, they are way worse than the men. So after this episode, Constanza was all upset and crying, so we made our way home. It was definitely an interesting night.

The next day (friday) we helped out Pili who had tons of food to make and deliveries to do. Later in the day Marcelo, Erin and I packed up and decided to spend the rest of the weekend in Algarrobo. We had a very nice relaxing night there. And then the following day (Saturday), there was a big family bbg in Casablanca (or asada in spanish). Its like an all day event. The whole family sits down and eats a little bit (almost all meat of course) and then repeats this at least three more times. It was a blast thought to talk with the whole family and get to know them all more... its a big extended family. In the afternoon and inbetween meals, all the boys went out into the field to play fútbol (soccer) and the rest of the younger ones, we all went and flew kites (volantines). It was super fun, but a very long day since the nights before we didn't get much sleep. That night though, Constanza and Sergio joined us in Algarrobo and we went to a fonda there, but not for long though. We each had one terremoto, played some games and walked around. We ended the night relaxing back at the house with the most fascinating conversation. The next day (sunday) was gorgeous and super warm so we all sat outside in the morning until lunch taking in the sun and enjoying eachothers company. Later that day we went to the artesanías to look around and went to walk by the beach. And then after our lazy afternoon we made our to Casablanca to see the grandparents and then made our way back to Viña.

It was quite the busy weekend, but I loved it. I am so glad I was able to experience this major holiday in Chile!

Oh and sorry for the lack of photos. But I went to a lot of places this weekend where it was too dangerous for me to take my camera or purse or anything valuable... I didn't want to get anything stolen like what happened to Constanza. So hopefully the other pictures will suffice and you all can at least get the main idea! :)

Cumpleaños del Ignacio y partido de Baloncesto

On September 12, 2009, it was Ignacio's birthday. We didn't have a big celebration but we did celebrate. He hadn't been feeling very well that week, got some kind of bad stomach bug, so he couldn't really eat too much. Early in the day Marcelo, Erin and I went to the mall and bought a gift for him. We ended up getting him: a zip-up athletic jacket (polerón), nice sweatpants and a t-shirt (polera)... and it was all on sale and cheap! It was a long day at the mall though trying to find everything.

After that we went back to the house and in the evening the grandparents came from Casablanca, Sergio and Constanza came over and we had a little family gathering. It wasn't much because not only could Ignacio not eat that much, but he and Gabriel also had a basketball game in the evening. And the game was the first time that the two would be playing against each other... because I guess the league they play for, they are on two different teams. I can't keep straight all their different teams they play on. So after the little family gathering where gifts were opened, tea/coffee snacks and apple pie were served... we made our way over to the gym to watch the two boys play.

It was a really good game, super close the whole time. Both of the boys, Ignacio and Gabriel are great players... but this was the first time I had seen differences between the two when they play. In the beginning, Gabriel kind of let his nerves get to him. Not sure if the cause was because the family was there to watch or because he was playing against Ignacio, either way it effected his game a bit. But right from the start Ignacio was doing great, scoring points right and left. But as the game progressed Gabriel got better and better and scored all kinds of points, and it was him in the end that scored the majority of the points that made his team with the game. Ignacio was a little bummed at the end, because his coach took him out for some reason, and he thought he should have played and could have helped so his team could have won. It was also interesting because Ignacio plays in a different division that Gabriel since he is younger, so it was kind of a big deal. But in the end it was just great to see them play and watch how they don't let the game interfere with the great relationship they have with each other.

After the game, we all came back and ate pizza for dinner (this was Pili and TuTi's attempt to lighten the mood and fill their kids' stomachs) and mango and pisco sour. We ended up having some great conversation and a blast playing some games. We played one game called (How do you cross the mountain? (¿Cómo cruze la montaña?))... I didn't get it for the longest time, not until Marcelo told me. I am always so clueless with games. And then Erin delighted the family with a drinking game called "F**k me up." Its a game with a little saying and each person has a number.. it was very simple but could get a little confusing with all the adults a wee bit tipsy. Pili had the hardest time, so of course we always picked her number to tease her. As the night progressed the boys and Maite headed off to bed (they were leaving the next morning for a backetball tournament in Antofogasta (the north of Chile), so it left only the adults to enjoy the fun. It was funny though because the next day before the boys left, I heard them singing the chant to the game F**k me up like all day. I don't know why it is so funny to hear english swear words with a spanish accent, but it is hilarious to me.

But it was a super fun day and I think Ignacio had a pretty good birthday. After his birthday things around here started to get a little hectic. I had a test that following wednesday that I was stressing out about, since it covered a ton of information. And then also that tuesday (15th de spetiembre) we celebrated Sergio's birthday, and then after that came the independence day holiday.

I hope the test went well, but I won't find out until this week sometime. Sergio's birthday was fun. We all went to Constanza and Sergio's apartment for dinner, drinks and a good time with friends and family. For Sergio, Marcelo Erin and I bought him a cd of 80's songs (he loves the 80's), a polerón (sweatshirt) and a starbucks coffee mug, which worked out well because he broke his best coffee mug the week before and we had no idea. A whole bunch of people came over and it was fun to just sit back and listen, but I was a little preoccupied since I had my exam the next day and still needed to study. So I left early with TuTi and Maite while Erin, who also had the exam the next day, stayed back and partied more. Which I guess I missed the people dancing the cueca and the sao sao (types of dances) and more fun things. But oh well.

After wednesday (september 16th), I finished my classes for the week and got to have a couple days of vacation for the holiday of independence and here it is called fiestas patrias. Those stories will have to wait for another post though because they are a story all in themselves.

Aventuras en Valparaíso

So I am not sure if I have already shared that Constanza, Sergio, Marcelo, Erin and I decided in July or August that we were going to have a nice sit down dinner at a different place each month. In August we went to Malandrinos for pizza, and for September we went to an amazing restaurant called Pasta e Vino. We went there September 11, 2009 - but this is not only a marked day for the U.S., but it also has a sad significance in Chile as well. There was a huge coup d'etat this day that overthrew the government of President Allende (this all happened September 11, 1973) and then the military/dictator government of Pinochet took over. So yeah there's a little history for ya. I am actually really interested in the politics here, especially because there are going to be the presidencial elections for the next president in Chile this coming december, I think its right before I leave to go home. But I just think its rad that right now Chile has a woman president... and she is a very interesting woman. Her name is Michelle Bachelet, you all should read about her a learn a little more about Chile. :)

Okay back to the nice evening at Pasta e Vino. So this is a restaurant in Valparaíso thats a little more upscale... a little more on the expensive side, but I am so happy I went because the food was definitely on my list of best food I have ever tasted! This place in owned but a husband and wife, the wife is Chilean and the husband is Italian (actually from Italy). The food is more on the vegetarian side (Marcelo the meat eater just loved this place! ;)) and has tons odd combinations of things you would never think could go together.

Examples are:

Ravioli filled with pear and brie in a butter sauce

Olive gnochhi

Ravioli filled with pumpkin

Hazelnut gnocchi in a muhroom sauce

And many many more. I had the pumpkin filled ravioli and it was freaking amazing. It was fun, we all got different dishes and past them around the table (I of course shoved aside the meat to try everything else). We also had got pisco sour (really strong) and then a bottle of white wine. Seriously one of the best meals I have ever had. Oh and I almost forgot, the best part was the dessert. We got two different plates and shared them: one was a brownie with vanilla ice cream and then the other was a plate of different types of ice cream. The plate with the ice creams had flavors of: a lemon sorbet type, raspberry cream, and others but my favorite was bananas and manjar, it tasted like I was eating a banana whole with manjar on it. Absolutely amazing, can't even describe it in words.

This is what the outside looks like, the restaurant is only part of this building, its really small and quaint. I loved it.

This is pretty much all of the restaurant... so yeah you can tell just how small it is.

After dinner we went to Poble Nou, which is also in Valparaíso for another round of Pisco Sours, since they have the best pisco sours that we have tasted.

This is what Poble Nou looks like. Like Pasta e Vino, it too is very small. This place is owned by a french woman... so the name is obviously french. The atmosphere is really neat, its pretty much all lit by candlelight and its a place to go eat, have a drink, and spend time conversing with friends. We need more places like this back home.

This night was definitely a blast. I am not sure where we are going for our dinner next month. We talked about options. There is another nice Thai restaurant near Pasta e Vino, or a really nice french restaurant as well. But after that adventure I will of course share it with everyone. :)

Más fútbol!

So as the majority of my new posts, these were pictures from a soccer game from the same night we made Pisco and Mango sour. I of course didn't go, but these are photos from the newspaper. If I remember correctly, pretty sure Chile lost to Brasil. Yeah sad news, but here are some photos for you all to see.

Also another related thing about soccer (fútbol). I found out that my family's favorite soccer team in Chile is called the Wanderers. And I mean fans! Abuelo (grandfather) here has so much memorabilia for them, its kinda crazy. So here is a few other photos of them to show you all (no I did not take these).

Clases de cocina!

On September 9, 2009 (wednesday), I had another cooking class with Pili. This time we made Mango sour and Pisco sour... it was pretty much the most important class yet! :) But not only did I want to learn how to make these delicious drinks, but we made them to celebrate Ignacio's brithday that was the next saturday (September 12, 2009).

This class went by really fast and I realized just how easy it is to make these two drinks. But unfortunately I don't think we have pisco in the states, so I might have to bring home a bottle so you all can try it. So good! :)

Here are some pictures of the experience:

You need to use fresh lemon juice for pisco sour.. this is Erin and she is squeezing the lemons!

This is a bottle of Pisco... if anyone knows if we have this in the states let me know!

After we made the Pisco... we reused the bottle since we weren't going to drink it until Saturday. It stayed nice and chilled in the fridge until then.

But there was a little left over that wouldn't fit into the bottle.. so of course we split it and drank a little. Our excuse was that we had to taste it first to make sure it was okay to serve on Saturday. And wouldn't ya know it, it was pretty much perfect! :)

This is just a photo (bad I know) that I took from the kitchen looking into the kitchen dining area. This is where the family spends most of our time together. The television is in there, and one of the computers, and then we of course eat in here as a family as well.

This is mango pulp, and the key ingredient in Mango sour. I don't think we have this in the states either, so I plan to bring a bag home. Hopefully customs will let me!

Below are just some extra photos of what mango sour looks like:

This is a bottle of already prepared mango sour. Its good, but nothing is better than Pili's homemade mango sour!

I found this picture from the internet. It is so discriminatory, but it makes me laugh for some reason. It makes total sense though. Pisco is a sweet drink, and its easy to drink a lot and not realize that its alcoholic. Yeah I just had to share it.

This past week we didn't have a cooking class since Pili had too much work to do, since it was Chile's Independence Day. So instead we helped out Pili in the kitchen, but didn't get to learn anything new. No clue what the next class is going to be. But I am sure I will telling you all about it once I know. :)

La Ligua, Valle Hermoso y Chalecos!

I still have one more little adventure from last weekend that I haven't gotten to share with you all. Last Saturday (5 de septiembre 2009), Constanza, Sergio, Marcelo, Erin and I (I think I need to come up with a name for our little group, it gets a little exhausting writing out each name every time) all went to a little country town up north about two hours away from Viña. Before going they all told Erin and I that it wasn't a touristy place, so the town itself was pretty dull, not much to see and nothing too pretty about it. But the cool thing about it to me was that we got to go to a little town that tourists don't see and really see how life is in these little places in Chile. But I thought they were all wrong, it was really pretty to me, maybe not the town itself, but the scenery around it was just amazing.

These are photos from the side of the road on our way to La Ligua. The scenery was just to pretty to not stop for a photo. Erin had a photo session while I took a bunch of photos on my own.

I think this was the first time we got to see some of the real Chile though, since it wasn't a real tourist area. The houses were really small and probably held a whole family... I think we got to see a little bit more poverty than I have yet to see. It was really interesting.

These are photos of Valle Hermoso... it was a really beautiful place!

These were just photos to show what the buildings looked like in La Ligua..very traditional and small town. I actually really liked it here. The people were incredibly friendly and I don't think they even realized Erin and I were foreigners. ¡Qué bakan!

So while we were there, we of course did shopping. La Ligua and Valle Hermoso are know for their knit works. They have a street dedicated to shops just for chalecos (knitted sweaters). We spent about 2 hours going through these shops looking at sweaters. By the end I was dragging, since I didn't see anything I was in love with, and most of the stores (tiendas) had the same kind of sweaters. But it was still fun, since my family here is great and always make for fun and interesting company.

It's heard to tell in this photo, but this whole street was lined with stores selling chalecos... I have never seen that many sweaters before in my life! Yeah and they were al hand-made, it was pretty awesome. Sadly I didn't buy any though. Constanza told me the people from Patronato in Santiago come to La Ligua to buy their sweaters and then take them to Santiago and sell them for a higher price. They just come here with suitcases, ready to make a killing on sweaters and then take them all to Patronato in Santiago. Gotta make a living somehow I suppose!

But besides knit works (sweaters, etc), La Ligua is known for its dulces (sweets), but especially certain types of pastries/sweets. They were absolutely amazing, so fresh and so cheap! I wish I could bring some home to share with you all because really without tasting them I could never do them justice.

These are the people that sell those amazing sweets! There are little stores that sell them in La Ligua, but it is more common to buy them from the people on the streets with these baskets. When you are on the highway coming into La Ligua, these people stand on the side of the highway with little white flags and in little white uniforms with their baskets selling the most amazing sweet treats.

This is the dulces look like! Increíble! They all have manjar (dulce de leche) inside... yeah pretty much in heaven when we all divulged into these things.

Out of all the kinds I tried, these were my favorite. They are soft and powdery and full of manjar. Yeah I don't think I have tasted anything as good. If only I could share with you all... I have a feeling customs wouldn't let these slip through though.

Well thats it for now... I am actually writing this post/well finishing it like two weeks since I have gone on this trip. But better late than never! I have many more experiences to share with you all... but its going to take a while to write it all. So more posts are going to come this week!

Chao for now! xoxo

Partido del fútbol: Chile vs. Venezuela

This post I am dedicating to Miss Lindsey... because of her love of soccer. Enjoy Linds! :)

So as I had mentioned in the last post that my family: Sergio, Constanza, Ignacio and Erin and I watched the soccer game on TV while eating completos. Well originally this was the game that I was going to be able to go to with ISA, but ISA I guess couldn't get tickets. So we are planning on going to the next game in October. And in the end I am a little glad we couldn't go because it was raining pretty hard last saturday night in Santiago for the game (partido).

A picture of the Chile equipo (team) in la lluvia (the rain)!

I really can't say that much about the actual game since I am not a huge soccer fan, but it was definitely fun to watch and see how excited everyone gets about soccer here. And I learned a little bit more about the rules of the game, so that was fun. But pretty much I just watched where the ball went, and hoped Venezuela didn't score. I mean thats really all you need to know right? :) (I bet you are cringing with my ignorance right now Linds).

This is what the crowd looks like.. absolutely insane from the looks of it. And I have a friend from ISA who went and he said is was total craziness, but such a blast.

Also along with watching the game my family told me about the most famous soccer player in Chile. His name is Alexis Sanchez. And he has quite the story. He is from the north of Chile, came from the poorest or poor backgrounds. Most of the soccer players come from a poor background, but the case with Alexis is a little more severe. But what I found so interesting was that now even though he has loads of money, he and his still lives almost the same, a very simple life, like they didn't have all that money. I found him more interesting than the game itself! And since I asked so many questions about him, my family gave me a hard time and said I needed to meet him (because it would only take just one look for us to fall in love in the words of my family), then marry him and stay in Chile forever. Yeah they gave me a hard time throughout the whole game.

Here are photos of Alexis Sanchez. I put a lot because he is the most famous and of course his story was so cool to me... not for the reason that my chilean family would say. Oh how they love to tease me!

This is another famous soccer player here in Chile. His name is Jorge Valdivia, and I guess he is really good to, but in a different way than Alexis, and not as good.

And the photos below are just shots from the the team playing that I thought I would share.

After watching this game and feeling the excitement from everyone and how much everyone loves and supports their team, I am really hoping I can go watch the next game in October. I have to pay extra to do it but I think it would be a great experience. :)