The Call to Chile: Lunch Dates

(10/22-10/25) This week was jam packed with stuff. I still feel like I haven’t stopped yet and I have more plans for tomorrow! It’s good though. So Monday started off my week pretty well. I met with a student, Camila, for a late lunch. She came over here and the first thing she told me was that she had bought lemons and wanted to make lemonade. So we made lemonade and it was delicious and reminded me of the south. After that I had to make the Donce dessert which she helped with along with Katie. I made banana chocolate chip cake. It was delicious. Anyhow while it was cooking, Cami and I went outside and talked for a while. We also took turns showing each other youtube videos that we loved. It was pretty fun! It was time for our small groups after that so I went to mine and she went to hers. Then Donce started and we ate lasagna and Eli gave the talk. The game was charades and the first team who could finish the card won. We didn’t win but we didn’t lose either and that’s all I care about. Not much more happened that night. Tuesday morning I woke up and cleaned a little. Not too much later I went to lunch with a friend of mine, Cynthia, in Plaza de Armas, which is a big town square. I let her pick the place and she chose a Chinese restaurant. I was actually surprised by how delicious it was. I trust that girl. I went and did a little shopping after that because the restaurant was only a block away from my favorite ferria. When I got back to the El Oasis house, we had our Café a lo Gringo meeting and then our Exchange Student meeting. They both went pretty well, they were just a little longer than usual. When that was over I hung out with a student named Susana and we played music and talked about what we liked about the music. Then I Skyped my parents, it was my dad’s birthday and I wanted to tell him happy birthday all the way from Chile. I stayed up a little later talking to a friend and went to bed after that. Wednesday was awesome. First of all, a few minutes after I woke up, the doorbell rang. David came back inside hauling two packages. Then he called my name and said that both were for me! I got one from my sister and my grandma and one from my aunt and cousins. It was such an incredible way to start off the day. They were both so thoughtful and so very much appreciated. After the excitement of that was over, Katie and I left to go to a Chilean student’s (Carla) house because she invited us to lunch. So we went, which was a pretty complicated trip and it was like an hour away. There was also another Chilean with us, Nani, who also got the invite. The trip was worth it though. We ate this soup that she cooked for us which is a famous kind of soup here and takes a lot of preparation. I can’t remember the name of it. After we ate we went for a walk just around her little neighborhood, it was super cute. When we got back to her house we watched a movie, that wasn’t very good but I take the blame because I picked it. After that her mom drove us to the metro station which was awesome because I hate riding the bus. When we got off at our metro station, I ran inside the first store we passed to buy milk and bread so I could use things from my packages. I made pancakes from my sister’s package and I made a peanut butter sandwich with the package from my aunt’s. Then I talked to yet another friend from home. It was obviously a good day. Thursday I woke up and went to staff meeting. When staff meeting was over, Eli asked me if I would like to go to Lider with her to shop for Tertulia. So I went with her along with her brother Jorge. It was really fun shopping, they’re both really fun to be around. When we got back I ate my lunch and then had a Skype date with a friend back home. This week I have talked to more people from the United States than I have the entire time of me being here. I liked it though because I got to catch up on the lives of my friends and that’s important. Anyhow, after that Skype date was over I made the brownies for Tertulia. Then we started getting ready for Café a lo Gringo. This Café was restaurant themed and each table had to make a plate of food. My table won and it was really awesome looking. Tertulia started after that and the dinner was this pasta stuff. It was pretty good. Tertulia was awesome. The band played really well and Frizz gave the last talk on the Our Father series about temptation, which I understood most of. After that I just played around the house with some students until they had to leave. Then I ate some brownies that I had made and added peanut butter. It was delicious and a great ending to a great week.