Now before coming down here, I considered myself quite a night owl. My normal bedtime is around 2AM and my peak energy hits around midnight or so. However, I am an considered early bird down here, wher people start going out to clubs around midnight and come home around 5 or so. Then, they often go back to a friend's house to talk before heading home to start the day (without sleeping!). I also learned that chilean wedding ceremonies don't start til 9PM , with the reception starting around midnight! I couldn't imagine my grandparents (or parents for that matter) making it through a night like that.
This weekend, I tried my hand at the chilean life. Friday night I went to our CIEE program goodbye dinner, which started at 8:30 and was held outside at a restaurant at the base of Cerro San Cristobal. The weather was perfect for an outdoor meal and the company was even more perfect :) Sad to say goodbye to my fellow CIEE classmates, but I'm sure that we will run into one another sometime in the future. After dinner was over, we watched a slideshow of pictures throughout the semester and then hit the dance floor to show off our cueca and salsa moves that we'd learned over the past few months.
Erin, me and Caitlin at the goodbye dinner :(
Left the goodbye dinner a bit early (12:30) to go to a birthday party at Rockola - a club in Barrio Bellavista. When we were entering, Marni's boyfriend got pulled aside for wearing white tennis shoes (apparently, those shoes are "flaite" - a style of attire that is not permitted at this club) Luckily he had an extra pair of shoes in his car so after waiting for him a few minutes we were good to go. Rocked, danced and sang the night away, pausing halfway through the night to watch a "dance" competition of single guys and girls in the club. I use the word "dance" lightly, because the performances were more focused on sexy stripteases and booty bouncings rather than artistic body movements. After the intermission, we proceeded to dance...enjoying the increased volume of salsa music in the later portion of the evening. By 4AM, we were pooped.
Oh dear...
Rodrigo (my friend) and Felipe (Marni's boyfriend)
Headed home, smelling of smoke and sweat, but happy as a clam. Collapsed into bed for a few precious hours, thennnn woke up for another party!
At noon, we headed to Pirque (about 45 minutes outside the city-- winery country) to go to my friend Paula's house for an asado (all day grill out). Her yard is absolutely amazing and will be elaborated on in later posts. However, one cool thing about it is that it used to be owned by a family from Indonesia, so they have Hindi sculptures all around, like this one of Ganesh:
Enjoyed a yummy lunch of meat and salads, went for a dip in the pool, chilled with Paula's zoo of pets (including adorable little baby kittens!) and chatted with some amazing people, such as the chicky below-->
Me and Camila, in our opposites attract outfits :)
The asado ended around 7 PM, when people headed home to shower and get ready for one of our mutual friends' birthday parties. Unfortunately, I proved my gringaness by wimping out and heading home to relax. As much as I love a good party, I haven't quite built up the stamina for 3 in a row yet.
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1 comment:
Sounds like you've had a great time! I've been following a bit via my RSS reader. :)
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