Family

Well as you all know,  I've been severely neglecting my blogging duties and I cannot say I have a good excuse! Maybe I've just gotten used to writing about major events and traveling that I have forgotten how to write about the small, yet still important events. Because in the past three weeks or so, nothing really eventful or special has happened here in Valparaiso. However, more than anything, I've started to feel really at home in my home and in Valparaiso. However I realize this is a very relative statement. Obviously I feel more at home now than I did before because even a month ago I felt more at home than I did the month before that, and before that, and...etc. You get the picture. Maybe the difference here this time is that I think I've become a real part of my family here. I realized this the other day when my host brother and sister started bickering back and forth about something trivial and for the first time in 4 months, I said something about it. I didn't yell, or get upset, I just said "you guys I'm tired of this you guys need to stop this senseless bickering". Well, I said something along those lines in Spanish, not quite sure what the word bickering is. But anyways, it felt like a totally brother and sister thing to do, to speak up and say something to the other one and to tell them to stop. And it hit me in that moment how close I've become with my family here.

My host mom has become one of my closest friends here and I'm so thankful that I was put in this family. I was feeling sad the other day about how little time was left and she instantly knew something was wrong. She wrapped me in her arms and let me cry and told me we would make something yummy for dinner and that we would all spend the night together. Of course... we made completos. She also gave me a silver bracelet that her mother had given to her for her 15th birthday and I can't even stress how big this is. Her mother passed away 6 years ago and she never stops talking about how special and wonderful of a mom and woman she was. She considers her mom her best friend and she misses her terribly all the time. So the amount of love that she showed me with her giving the bracelet was just extremely touching. I've feeling very much loved from this family and I have so much love for them and my heart is going to break when I have to leave them all in january.
Now for my other family, my Casa de Colores family...they are just where my spirit lies here in Chile. I spend about as much time in this house as I do my own. I know exactly what needs to be put out at night for our daily "once", starting with the plates, the silverware, the cups, the bread, butter, jam, manjar...etc. And I mean, I know...it's setting a table, whats the big deal? But it's like the house has become my own. I had the same feeling yesterday as I was cooking our thanksgiving meal (more to come later) that the house has become my own, because I knew where everything went in the kitchen, all the spoons, knifes, butting boards etc. And it just feels really good to feel that security and comfort in the place that you are.

Anyways, this Casa de Colores family of mine decided that we should do a thanksgiving meal to celebrate thanksgiving and sort of the end of the semester. Me and the three other gringa girls that  spend a lot of time in the house decided to embark on our first thanksgiving without experienced cooks... for 22 people. And I'm gonna say it right now, we did a spectacular job. We went all out and did a whole turkey rubbed down with rosemary butter, garlic parmesan mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans, an herbed green bean casserole, roasted asparagus with salt, pepper and a little cheese, stuffing, gravy and a carrot mash to replace sweet potato pie. Also latkes!! We made all of this in one day, in this tiny little kitchen, with little to no mishaps. For dessert we had two blueberry cobblers, two pumpkin pies, an apple pie and a peach cobbler as well. We made these the day before, which ended up being a really, really good idea.  Out of the 22 people, only 5 of us were not Chilean and so for most people there, everything we ate was the first time they had tried it. And we got great reviews! Everyone really enjoyed it and ate almost everything, which is impressive considering how much we had. In accompaniment, we had borgoña which is red wine mixed with strawberries and a little sugar. I'm so happy and so proud of what we accomplished!

Thanksgiving pics!

We also had a little "secret santa" event where we all pulled a name from a hat and we bought/made a little gift that we presented during our meal. It was a great event that really just pulled the whole night together. 

I'm off to Peru and Bolivia for the next 12 days and I'm sure I'll have lots to write about upon my return! Happy thanksgiving :)

Buenos Aires, the Paris of South America

Hola mis amigos!!  After a busy, busy week in Buenos Aires, I have finally recovered enough to share with you guys about my trip. Let me just start by saying that I am sorry for how many pictures I am going to put up, we went to SO many places and they all seemed so cool and important that I needed to put them in here. I really didn't do my homework before going to Buenos Aires and so I learned a lot about Argentine history while I was there. To start off, this is la Casa Rosada which is the executive mansion and presidential office of Argentina. This is also the house were Eva Duarte de Peron made her famous speeches to the poor people of Argentina.  Eva or "Evita" was the first lady from 1946-1952 of Juan Peron. Anyways, her picture and her presence was everywhere throughout the city, and I think most people think of her when they look at this "pink house" which we decided is the wrong name and should be called the Salmon House. 

On our first day we ended up just staying in our hostel and recovering from our overnight stay in the Santiago airport. Our second day we ended up making our way to Palermo which is the ritzy part of the  city with a lot of parks! This picture is from the Botanical Garden where there were tons of cats just lazying around. I won't lie, I missed the stray dogs of Valparaiso while we were there! Cats are just not the same. On day two we went to the MALBA which is the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires which was AMAZING! I saw a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo and some amazing art by Antonio Berni who I think is one of my new favorite artists. Unfortunately a museum is a museum and I couldn't take any pictures.

Day three was a rainy, rainy day and we made our way to the Mercado de San Telmo which is the neighborhood we were staying. Definitely my favorite indoor market I've been too. The whole place was basically an antique/collectable/vintage place with a few fresh veggie and fruit stands. I got a little tin box to use as a memo keeper and a really cool old pink shirt that is blinged out but needs some serious work at a tailor shop. 

Day four we made our way to the Recoleta cemetery! It was the 31st which was cool cause we got to be all spooked out on Holloween. It was a beautiful and impressive cemetery full of tons of creek and cracks and secret doors and passageways, just like a cemetery should be. It was dark and rainy that day too so it just added to the affect. 

scary and beautiful all at the same time

After the cemetery we made our way to this amazing bookstore that was in an old theatre. They did a great job making it look spectacular and beautiful and it was nice to escape the rain and curl up with a book for awhile. 

 Our next day we ended up making it out to La Boca which is near the port where boats used to come in and sailors would go for fun and craziness. It was PACKED with tourists and it was a bit overwhelming so we didn't stay too long. But the colors were really fun and the houses were cool to look at. It was definitely a brothel neighborhood when it was still in action. We almost didn't make it to the place actually, we took a wrong turn and thankfully we ran into a resident who warned us not to go down that street. Surrounding the area was the not nice part of la Boca and was very run down. It was interesting how that extremely poor neighborhood was surrounding this tourist trap where people were walking around with 1,500 dollar cameras around their necks, only seeing the part they wanted to see. 

Here's a view of "la Boca" which means mouth. It was very warehouse-like and run down looking but still had some charm

 We tried to make it out to the nature reserve that morning but it had rained all day the day before and so they closed it unfortunately. However we still got to see some beautiful trees and marshlands. 

Sunday we made our way to "la Feria de Mataderos" which I think was my favorite thing we did. There was music and dancing and so many beautiful arts and crafts and yummy artesian cheeses, meats honey's and chocolates. This woman was dancing by herself for a while to the Argentine cueca which is much slower and more romantic than the Chilena cueca. OH NO I forgot to talk about the TANGOOO! En la Boca we saw a few couples dancing the Tango and it was a beautiful dance albeit slow and romantic. I really had no idea the Tango was such a slow dance. I think the only vision I've had of the Tango comes from the movies which is always very fast and sexy. The tango we saw, which I'm 100% sure is more authentic, was very slow, sad, and serious. Anyways, getting to see these traditional dances was really fun and made the market a lot of fun. 

We also made it to the Feria de San Telmo which was HUGE. It was at least 6 or 7 blocks long with both sides of the street filled with vendors. It was much more grungy and the stuff they were selling was not as "beautiful" but I found a really cool back made out of an old vhs box and I don't think I could have found it anywhere else if not this crazy, jumble of people, things, music and drugs (so many vendors smoking weed).

These next couple pictures are some interesting art and signs that  come from when we went to Plaza de Mayo which is right in front of La Casa Rosada. These signs are from Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo which is a group of mothers who have protested for years the disappearance of their family members at the hands of the government during la Guerra Sucia from 75-78. We missed the actual mothers by a half an hour which was SO disappointing, especially cause we had planned on seeing them and had just read the wrong time. But these banners were up in the plaza and it seemed like they had been their for a while and were permanent-like.  The second picture is a graffiti mural right on the outskirts of the plaza full of anti-consumerism/anti-imperialism images. 

 And just a little section of some of the food we had/made during the week! Our first night we stopped at this little Italian looking/seeming pasta shop and bought fresh gnochi pasta with a sauce and mixed it with some sauteed zuchini and eggplant. Our hostel's kitchen was fairly well equiped and we had a great time cooking for ourselves throughout the week.

Also, about a block away from our place there was this delicious empanada store where we bought ten for two of us and shared them all! The difference between Argentine and Chilean empanadas are size and filling. In Argentina they are filled with all different kinds of fillings: cheese, ham and cheese, spinach, roquefort, regular "carne" and all other kinds of delicious kinds. It is custom to eat around 6 I think, and 3 for a snack. 

We also enjoyed very much the ice cream/gelato of Argentina. This was only one of the times we got ice cream but we got 1/2 a kilo for three of us! But we said we weren't eating lunch for the week so that made it ok to eat whatever we wanted. I mean, how often are you in Argentina with gelato available right?

On the night we went out to a "Parilla" we chose cheap and got three entree's to share, a main meal and a bottle of wine all for around 25 USD! And it was SOOOO good.  I got a bife con chorizo which is th emost common piece cut of meat at a Parilla.

This is a provoleta which is a big slice of provolone cheese, grilled with some herbs on top!

Anyways, after a successful trip to Buenos Aires, it's time for my last three weeks of class here in Chile before a  month and a half of traveling and many more pictures! I can't believe everything here is already coming to an end, it seems unreal and like it's not actually happening.  I hope you enjoy the pictures and can taste the food from your computers. Love and miss you all.