The Call to Chile: Merry Christmas To Myself!

(11/16-11/18) Friday, I felt pretty crappy all day. I did a little shopping in the morning and when I got back I slept for three hours. I don’t know what happened but I got sick out of nowhere. Well, this temperature has been pretty crazy and changing more than I change my clothes, and I change my clothes pretty often. It’s spring, what can you do? Nothing. Take allergy medication and just bare it. Onward march. So the rest of Friday I spent pretty much doing nothing. A student came over to wait for another student so they could go to dinner so I talked with him for about an hour and a half. They were supposed to meet at 8 but here that apparently means 9:30, I still haven’t quite figured that out. Anyhow after that Eli and I hung out for a bit and played ping-pong extreme because girl can’t keep the ball on the table to save her life. It was fun though. After that I pretty much knocked out for the night. In the morning I made chocolate chip pancakes and ate them all, along with an apple. Then Eli and I literally ran to pick up medals for the boys Futbol Tournament. Then we had to go to the grocery store for the boys and pick up meat and charcoal. Boys can’t do anything for themselves, is what I have concluded. After that Eli, Katie, and I went to a fancy shopping center in Los Dominicos (where the rich people live.) Everything was pretty expensive, but it was such a cute place. I couldn’t resist buying a few things, although mostly I bought gifts for myself…I deserve nice things! Anyhow, once we were done there, Eli and I went to find Eli’s mom a birthday present. I’m glad she found it in the first store because I was tired and ready to go. Of course after we found that we went to Santa Lucia to find a birthday present for Phil from Eli. Luckily that didn’t take too long, and I got to buy more gifts. Once we got back, I ate dinner and then Katie and I watched a movie called A Knights Tale. I went to bed right after the credits rolled. Sunday morning Katie and I decided that we would go to the cute little church on top of Cerro San Cristobal. We’ve always admired the church and we only have three more Sundays here so we wanted to go at least once. It’s a Catholic Church, Katie is Catholic and I just think it’s kind of cool to hear the songs and the group chants. So we left the house at 10:30 and got to the top at exactly 12, talk about perfect timing. Oh yeah, Mass starts at 12. That was also the best climb I’ve done, I didn’t stop once on the way up the mountain, I was so proud of myself. Of course I sweated like a beast because it’s hot and I worked my body. For the first 15 minutes of Mass I was just trying to cool off. After that it was pretty cool to see and hear everything and be able to understand. After climbing down the mountain Katie went straight home but I wanted to walk around a little. I walked around and looked at cute little stores and even ate lunch at McDonalds, it was my first time at an international McDonalds and it was the fanciest fast food restaurant I have ever set foot in. No lie. It was gorgeous. When I got done eating I made the long walk back home. Once home I started laundry and took a shower, I smelled pretty awesome from my morning hike. I didn’t have much down time because at 6 I met a student, Susana, for dinner. Our originally planned location was closed because everything here is closed on Sunday and I somehow always forget. Thanks Santiago. So we walked about 2 miles to this HUGE mall (we’re talking 6 floors, with two grocery stores, movie theater, bowling alley, 2130587413534 stores, and probably more stuff that I don’t even know about) because it had the only food places open. That’s probably a little dramatic, but it was open. She got a salad and I got a hamburger called the Gringa. I thought it was ironic. Gringa or Gringo are what they call Americans here and only Americans. I don’t know why, it actually translates to without underwear. Anyhow we sat down and talked for a while which was pretty awesome. We walked around the mall for a little while after that and then went home because it was getting late and it had been a long day for both of us. Once home I finished laundry, relaxed, and slept. Pretty content with my weekend.