Red, White, and Blue!

July 7th, 2014



Happy Independence Day to all! The first part of the week was more of the daily grind.  On the fourth, my room mates Erin, Emy and a few teaching friends went to a bar called California Cantina for a big Fourth of July celebration.We dressed up in our red, white and blue outfits, (we even painted our nails!) and celebrated with a lot of other Gringos there. (*Fun fact-Chile's country colors are also red, white and blue!) There was a live Chilean band that played fun music-a mix or rock, blues, and jazz. Everyone was dancing and having a great time. We met and talked to lots of different people, a lot of people from the U.S. and many Chileans as well.
Saturday, we had our first Spanish lesson at Bridge. It was nice to get back into the "learning mode." After, we went to our American friends' house for an Asada, or a Chilean BBQ. We cooked chorizo on the grill, ate chips and pembre, which is like pico de gallo, but more Chilean, and made home-made Pisco Sours.  A Pisco Sour is a typical Chilean drink made from fresh squeezed lemons (we really did juice them!) powdered sugar, or a syrupy sugar, and Pisco, which is a special type of alcohol that you can only buy in South America. We blended an egg-white to the mix for a nice frothy top. It was a great experience!
That night, we went to a festival near our house called the Festival of Colors. The city of Providencia was celebrating a new part of town that was opening. There were many cute little bars and restaurants, and people with tents and stands selling a variety of arts and crafts, lotions, clothes, all hand made. There were big blow-up star decorations that changed colors and live music. There were many Chilean couples dancing to the music, it was fun to watch! I noticed that almost everyone dances and sings a long when there is a performer. When the singer or band is done, it is typical for the people to yell "OTRA, OTRA!" meaning "Another, another!" The singer or band almost always plays another song. I guess it is similar to an encore in the U.S.
After exploring the festival, we were invited to a bar to celebrate an American friends birthday. We google map everything, and the bar seemed pretty far away. But, it is kind of fun to explore new parts of the city, so off we went! We got on a bus (more like a roller coaster ride) and road about forty minutes east towards the Andes. We got off a stop late, but managed to find the little bar called Chihuahua. It ended up being a Karaoke bar! I learned that in Chile, Karaoke is taken very seriously. If you are not really good, you don't sing...otherwise you are boo'd off stage! We watched a few people sing, even a Maroon 5 song in there! It took us an hour and a half to get home, the busses aren't the most reliable and we ended up waiting quite awhile and the bus was very crowded!

Today, Emy went to go find a climbing gym with a friend and Erin and I relaxed and I cooked a lot to get ready for next week. Next weekend, Erin and I are planning to go to Valpariso. This is a port city-right by the ocean and is suppose to be beautiful.

Until next time! Miss you all and soak up some sun for me.