Big update time! woot!

So....I just got back from Viña, about...maybe an hour ago? five hour car ride, woohoo! We left a little bit around 10 am, all six of us crammed into a truck, driving. With nothing interesting to look at(woohoo desert?) but I did get to sleep a bit, so that was nice. Had lunch at some little place, which is always fun because I don't know what I'm ordering. It's like hitting the "I feel lucky" button on Google. But....it turned out okay, so that's good. Then we got to the little condo where we were staying with like, two other people. That was terrifying. I was pretty much really overwhelmed, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, is always a fun emotion to feel. Met my host brother, Mauricio, who kind of refused to speak English or translate questions I didn't understand, despite the fact that he went to California on exchange and speaks English fluently. Oh well. Lots of conversing took place, my host mom told everyone funny things that I've said, we all laughed, I understood what was going on, it was a good time. We had an asado that night, which is basically a barbaque, but much better because it's Chilean. Mauri played the guitarra and sang, and everyone drunkenly danced the Cueca using table napkins. If you don't know what the Cueca is(it could be spelled Cuecca, I'm not sure), I highly suggest you YouTube it, as it's quite cool. anyhoo. Dancing took place, and then around....10ish? Mauri turned to me and just said, "Vamos" so, like always, I smiled, nodded, and left with no idea where we were going. We left with a 19 year old girl, Maca, and her brother and his girlfriend, Pollo, y....actually I don't know her name. I was the youngest. As always. Oh well. Filo. We went to some girls house for awhile and then to the beach. We got home at 5:30. woohoo!
Sunday...much of the same. Aka nothing. Asado, empanadas, walking around and whatnot. We went out that night...we tried to go to a Fonda, but couldn't, so we ended up at the beach again.
Monday....we went to Valparaiso, which was about an hour drive away. This was really exciting....I fell in love with the city, and decided that I'm going to move there one day and live in a colored house. I actually got to talk with Mauri a lot more, and it was really really nice. We saw Pablo Neruda's house and some museum of cartoons by a Chilean guy, and I actually understood them, so that was exciting too. Oh! And we went on an ascensor. They're like these cable car type things(?) that go pretty much straight up on this track, but not really...it's hard to explain. But I have pictures!(look to the right...) Anyhoo...it was really cool, and I guess I've changed, because I never would have gone on something like that in the US. We went to another ascensor, but this was just a regular elavator that went straight up, and we got to see all of the city....it was amazing. I loved it oh so much. Monday was the independence day of Chile...but you couldn't really tell all that much. Minus Chilean flags everywhere, obviously. I saw lots of gringos, which was exciting. At Neruda's house, we were leaving when a group of English people walked by...I giggled and couldn't stop smiling...I'm not entirely sure why, haha, but it was cool. I got a lot of stares throughout the day, more than in La Serena, which is considering that we were in the South more, where there's a lot of German people, and I saw a lot of blondes(and always excitedly exclaimed "Rubio!!!"). Anyhoo. We went back to Maitencillo, the town we were staying in, at around 6. I had an empanada, and passed out somewhere around 9 while everyone else(minus Maca, who was with me) danced the Cueca outside. We woke up at 11ish...wandered downstairs, and chilled until 1 when we went out. We actually went to a Fonda, and it was a lot of fun. I saw some more gringos. And more blondes. And we got to dance. As far as I can tell, a fonda is this, dance type thing? with lots of more traditional music, but some reggaeton too. There was this typically dressed cowboy type guy(there's a word, I just can't remember it) on a horse at the entrance with some stick thing, and he hit some guy who was chucking stuff at the horse. Then, he moved away and yelled for everyone to just go in, which was good becuase I wasn't sure if I would be able to get in anyway. There was soooo many people, it was crazy. I think we kind of lost Maca, Pollo, y the girlfriend, but I was with Mauri the whole time so it was okay. I'm not sure what time we left, but when Mauri and I got home, we went to the beach for a little bit and ended up going back to the house at 6ish. wooohoo!
Slept till 1 today, cleaned up, hung around the house with Mauri, we went back to the beach for awhile and talked about my life in the states, and what I want to do in the future. He told me a little bit about his exchange and time in California, it was really nice. We're both very similar, we don't talk much, but the silence is never awkward. I promised him that I'll teach him some piano when he comes home in December, and he promised to teach me some guitar. We went back to the house, ate lunch(spaghetti, which was a nice break from all the meat and empanadas). And then.....many many pictures were taken by my host grandmother(Grammy, she reminds me of you!! hehe), and then....we left. It was kind of sad, because I don't know if I'll ever see some of those people again...but ....hopefully I will. If I ever make it down to Santiago, Maca said we'll party together. And, obviously, Mauri will be here this December. And we're going to go camping and out to discos and whatnot. 'Twill be fun.
and....that's an abbreviated version of this weekend. It was amazingly fun....and I loved it. I kind of learned to dance the Cueca too!
love you all
kelsey
(oh ps, the last picture's just some grafitti that I kind of had to document.)