Empanadas and Mayonaise: Fun Fun Weekend

Experienced a lot this weekend! Went out for the first time with my one chilean friend and all of his friends and two of my best friends from the program (Kelsey and Kathleen) and we went to a discotec and boy oh boy do I love dancing haha. The three of us americans just looked like idiots but we had sooooo much fun dancing. Also, they go out here from 2 am to 6 am..... so that is different. We didn't get home until 4:30 am and apparently that was an early night... I personally think its pretty stupid/pointless to make it that late but when it doesn't get dark until 10 I guess it makes a little more sense.

Then Friday night I had a pretty incredible experience. I went to dinner at this amazing house up in the mountains of Santiago and it was BEAUTIFUL. THe family I was with was (stay with me here) the family of the daughter of one of my grandma's 6th grade students when she was teaching in Santiago right after college. Crazyyyy. My grandma Bertie stayed in contact with that student over the years, who then put me in contact with her daughter who invited me to dinner because she has 5 kids, 24, 21, 19, 16 and 12. They were all so nice and it was really nice to feel so welcomed and we had a really great time and I plan to go visit again/hang out with their kids.

Then Saturday I spent all day at the baptism of my host's niece's baby ha Lets just say that 9 hours of small talk with a bunch of family members who all know each other and have no clue why you're there is a little much. It was actually really fun and they were all super nice but 9 hours was just way too much time to be there ha.

THEN, today I woke up and hiked up Cerro San Cristobal which is this super popular/famous mountain to climb. Everyone does it on the weekends as exercise and there is a zoo, pool, tons of little parks, restaurants, and at the top a HUGE virgin mary statue ha. It was really cool though and honestly just really nice to be outside and surrounded by active people. After, we got lunch at this nice little cafe that was delicious and walked through a street market/ garage sale of hundreds of people selling all their old stuff in a park. Ended the afternoon with the Bellas Artes Art Museum because every sunday the museums are free! Im going to try to go to one every week. It was really pretty and they had so cool exhibits. A lot smaller than I would have thought but thats ok, still interesting. PHEW, so much going on here. Possibly going with my chilean friend Tito to watch the super bowl soon!

Mapuche indigenous statues