¿Dulce o travesura? (¿ o Cipro?)
Friday night was
Halloween. Unfortunately, it didn't pass well for me (no me pase bien)* because I was sick :( Woke up with pain of my belly (dolor de la guata)* and muscle aches and an exploding headache. Spent the day in bed watching The Office and 30 Rock, catching up on news and (surprisingly) doing some homework. Felt really bad because I was supposed to go to Marcela's new house in the suburbs for a big move-in celebration lunch, but the thought of moving my body outside of the apartment just made me ache even more.
*[sorry...recently I've been talking in English like I'm translating the words from Spanish...with some things the Spanish phrase just gets the point across better or sounds cooler. I promise I will get this out of my system before I come home]
Um so yes instead of consuming sugary goodness that day, I had a lovely cornucopia of remedies. Had a bit of trouble deciding which bottles to order, considering this mystery disease hit me out of nowhere and I couldn't for the life of me diagnose it's cause. My host mom decided that the first strategy was to drink oregano water (like tea...made with oregano leaves. unfortunately, oregano is the one spice that does not sit well with me...so it took a bit of effort to get drink that down). After I still felt ill, my host mom went to the pharmacy and got some little droplets (yes, probably not safe that I had no idea what I was consuming, but I was feeling so awful that would have ingested cow urine if someone had handed it to me). Later that evening, thanks to dear old Dad, I decided to take a handy dandy Cipro pill. I'm not sure how much the Cipro helped with the illness, but it sure knocked me out...I was asleep by 10:30 for the first time since 5th grade.
Thus, I unfortunately did not get to hear the little Chilean children shout "dulce o travesura!" (sweet or prank!) and I missed the one time of year where college-aged girls turn cute innocent animals into barely-there
costumes (sorry girls...when has a cat ever worn a bustiere and stilettos?).
But alas, my life did go on.
Saturday Night Fever (the good kind of fever this time)
I suppose I slept the sickness off because Saturday I woke up mucho mejor. Didn't want to push anything though, so I spent most of the morning around home, but then went for a run inthe afternoon. Strolled through the lovely Parque Araucano and encountered a rose festival (yay!). I've found that
roses are quite prevalent down here...especially in public places. Before I had always thought of rose-growing as an arduous task. I suppose they grow more easily in this climate?
Saturday evening went to a crazy good Indian restaurant with my friend Will. (I know Indian is probably not the best post-sickness food...but I had honestly improved x10000 in just a few hours time). So yes, we had chicken tikka masala that was spicy enough to make you sweat but not spicy enough to make the eating experience painful...perfection! Later we went to a bar to have a drink before going out...I had an apple sour (yummm).
Then we headed to meet up with some el Oasis people to go to a fundraiser for some girl who wants to study in New York City. From the looks of the invitation, we all thought we were going to some dance club with college aged people...but boy we were wrong. Walked into the party site [a tae-kwon-do studio (?!)] and found ourselves faced with a table of septuagenarians enjoying some vino tinto in one corner. Then looked over to a gaggle of 8 year olds spinning around on the dance floor in another corner. Dancing to none other than "Rock Around the Clock." (?!)
Held in our laughter and walked outside. About an hour later, more college-aged people (and more grandmas and grandpas) show up. The real festivities started around 1AM, when a cueca band played and the old couples whipped out their handkerchiefs. After that, an ancient man started playing his eukelele-type instrument and sang/chanted some scary songs. After about three songs, the man got buggy-eyed and began telling an intense story. Everyone was ready for the old man to get off the stage, but instead of subtly asking him to wrap up his set, some lady in the audience interrupted the performance and screamed "MUSICA" and the DJ started blasting reggaton! I admit, I was ready for the guy to be done too, but what happened to respecting your elders? :(
After that scene, the party turned into what we were originally expecting- lots of reggaton, a few American tribute songs and a good amount of salsa and meregnue! After riding home on the bus (blasting with rap music to keep the party alive/keep the driver awake), got home at 5 am absolutely exhausted, but happy. Funnnn times.
Want some cheese with that wine?
Sunday I went to the
Concha y Toro winery, located right outside of Santiago. My friend works there and offered to bring Marni, our friend Andrew and I on a free tour + tasting, so we jumped at the chance. The estate was absolutely gorgeous (wedding-worthy) but the tour was a little hokey (lots of exaggerated stories and touristy hokiness...to be expected I suppose).
"I cannot live without books" -Thomas Jefferson
This weekend was the start of the Santiago Book Fair! (Hoooooooray!) I've been looking forward to this for awhile because it's been advertised all over the place and I'd read about it in my guide book a while back. Unfortunately, the fair was just a bunch of vendors selling books at non-discount prices, howeverrrr it was still fun to be surrounded with so many fellow book lovers! The best part of the event was that it took place in the
Centro Cultural Estacion Mapocho a beautiful old train station that was built (or designed?) by the guy who did the Eiffel Tower!! PLUS, when they filmed "The Mole" in Chile this past season, one of the elimination ceremonies took place in this station!!
Okay thats enough for now. More to come soon.
Noche,
Lindsay