The Call to Chile: Fantasilandia!

(11/9-11/11) This weekend was a pretty exciting one. Friday a student and I went out to lunch at a restaurant called J. Cruz where I tried chorrillana for the first time. Chorrillana is French fries with eggs, onions, and steak on top of it. It’s delicious. I could have eaten the whole plate by myself but I was sharing. I was meeting with a student because she needed help making a video for class interviewing someone in English. She asked me to help her come up with questions and then asked to interview me on camera. I said of course I would help her. Their English accents are so cute, I hope I sound cute with my Spanish accent. So that took about three hours in total. When we finished my friend Koke was at the house so we went and played ping-pong for about an hour or so. Eventually I needed to take a break and laid down on the couch where I apparently fell asleep for about an hour. When I woke up Eli and Jorge said they were going to the store to pick some stuff up at the market to make pizzas that night because a few people were coming over for pizzas and a movie. They told me I was going with them so I did, I love them very much, my family here. When we got back it was about 8:30 so we started cooking the pizzas and the people started trickling in. We sat around talking until about 1am when they decided that was the time to start the movie. I let them use my Netflix but went to bed around 2am because I was exhausted and Saturday was a big day. What was so big about Saturday you ask? Well I went to Fantasilandia, basically their version of Wild Adventures Theme Park. It was awesome though! Except we ended up waiting over an hour for everyone to get to the designated meeting location before hand, that’s Chilean time for you. I rode so many roller coasters and got to hang out with 6 El Oasis students (Carla, Ruth, Kevin, Koke, Moises, and Katie) all day. It was about $16 to get into the park which the students thought was expensive but compared to the US it was so cheap. Also the food in the park was really cheap comparatively. I ate a hamburger, large fry, and a large drink for less than $10. I was impressed. The rides were pretty awesome too. There was one that spun you upside down and then shot water in your face, it was weird but I liked it. It was the perfect day too, sunny with the high of 74, but the whole theme park was decorated for Christmas. It was so strange! There was even a parade with Santa Claus. They don’t have Thanksgiving to celebrate so right after Halloween they go straight to Christmas. We were in the park for about 7 hours and I wasn’t bored for a minute! It was such an awesome day. We got back to the house around 9 that night and then I played ping-pong with the guys for a little bit. Then when they left Katie and I played ping-pong for a little while. It was fun but I was pretty freaking tired so I showered and went to bed after that. Sunday was pretty awesome too. A student (Koke) had invited me to go to church with him so I took him up on his offer. Their pastor is a guy from the US so his Spanish was really easy for me to understand. Plus they had a visiting pastor from the US who didn’t know Spanish so we got to hear the sermon in English and in Spanish, it was very cool. After the service, Koke invited me to his house for lunch. I don’t pass up on free food. So I went. Koke and I hung out while his dad finished cooking lunch. The lunch was awesome though. It was like a cheesy zucchini casserole thing that was awesome and french fries. It was cool being able to talk to his dad and brother at lunch and understand what they were saying to me. Some days this language just clicks in my head and some days it’s harder. Luckily I was having a good day. His mother was at work so I didn’t get to meet her. After lunch Koke and I played Guess Who for a little while. Then he showed me his most prized collection, his movies. He was so happy that I went through all of them. He had a lot! It was about 3 by then so I decided to head back home. Plus he lives an hour+ away from El Oasis. When I got back I did laundry and ate beef jerky and sour watermelons while watching some Netflix show. I relaxed the rest of the day and it felt good. What a great weekend!