Surprise!

Got back this morning from an awesome trip down south with the family. We left on the night bus on Thursday evening. Thankfully Pedro and Sammi slept most of the way down - the same can't be said for the rest of us. I think I got about 2 hours sleep! We arrived in the tiny village of Lican Ray at 9am in the pouring rain and were met by some of Emy's cousins. Breakfast at their place while we waited for updates from the rest of the family. You see, it was Emy's grandmother's 80th birthday and the whole family were turning up to celebrate - but she had no idea. So another cousin was luring her out of the house for a couple of days while everyone arrived. When we got the call to say the coast was clear we packed ourselves into cars and drove up to their farm. Sadly, there weren't enough seats so Felipe and I ended up on the back of a truck which was fun but very wet!

Meat for the weekend

Emy putting up balloons

The farm was a wonderful place to visit. Emy's family have owned the hill for many generations now and they have superb views of the lake and volcanoes. Although we only saw some of it because the weather was average most of the weekend! When we arrived Felipe suggested we go and check out how the meat was coming along which I naively agreed to. Coming into a barn and being confronted with a partly butchered cow was a bit of a shock! Thankfully the meat is a strictly boy place and I didn't see it again until it was cooked. On Saturday morning we were busy with balloons and streamers and cooking while the boys were bbqing and doing jobs around the farm. More and more family turned up until there was about 50 people I think. At 1pm we got the call to say Grandma was coming back and we all hid so when she came we all jumped out saying "surprise!" She cried. (in a good way!) And then we ate. I don't think I've eaten quite so much meat in one sitting as I did this weekend. We had meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2 days. Emy is threatening to have only lettuce for the rest of the week!

In the evening they began to dance lots of traditional Chilean dances which was really cool until a slightly drunk uncle decided that the gringa needed to join in rather than just watch. So I was pulled protesting vehemently into a Chilean walz much to the hilarity of everyone else. Fun but I was thankfully rescued by Emy before he could make me dance another one! On Sunday morning the weather had cleared up a lot and so we went for a big walk which was fantastic for me. It was nice to be out in the mountains with fresh air and greenery all around. In the afternoon I caught a bus to Temuco to visit Nia before joining the rest of the family on the bus back to Santiago. Again, not much sleep happened but I was able to sleep once we got home. Overall, a wonderful get away for the weekend and a really awesome celebration to be part of.

Pedro chasing the sheep

Felipe and Pedro out for a walk

From the top of the property

Exploring the river

Concert and Chilean Culture

The stage is set....

Things have mostly been plodding along as normal with the exception of last Thursday and Sunday. On Thursday morning there were several large explosions as we were teaching and by midday we were evacuating the kindergarten. An illegal furniture factory has blown up and they were unsure if the smoke was toxic. So that was pretty exciting and I got a half day! On Sunday Felipe and I went to see Andre Rieu in concert. For me this was incredibly exciting as Nana and I had watched many DVDs of his concerts and it was amazing to finally see him live. There was only minor stress getting to the concert on time and I can only thank the Lord for giving us a park. People were parking on the footpath, in the park, on the roundabout, basically any flat spot near the stadium! Pretty funny but also a little stressful. Police out in force directing traffic but they didn't seem overly concerned with the abnormal parking. We had great seats with a perfect view plus there were big screens so I was completely content. I was even allowed to take pictures! They aren't very good I'm afraid but you can hopefully get some idea. There were about 10,000 people there and I loved every second of it. Fantastic music with plenty of humour and audience participation. Totally hilarious was 15 minutes of "snow" (feathers) being rained down on the very posh people seated in the middle during one walz. Typically Chilean, people were still arriving nearly an hour after the concert started!

Me and Felipe

The Blue Danube Walz

Which brings me onto the next topic. Dad suggested I write a little bit about Chilean culture/people now that I've been here awhile. Please note that I am probably going to massively stereotype but with only 4 months of observation I guess that's inevitable. Let's start with the things that annoy me first so that I can end positively. Personally, their sense of time is very frustrating. If I say, "meet at 4" I mean at 4. Not 4:30 or 5. It generally means a lot of waiting around and wondering if I understood correctly. Also, the subjunctive tense. This gives people a whole tense to avoid committing to anything. In fact, I suspect many NZers would appreciate a subjunctive. It does mean having to listen very carefully when arranging things. Moving on, many Chileans have no concept of a rubbish bin. I frequently see people simply dropping their lolly wrapper, ice-cream stick, coffee cup etc on the street. Or out a bus window. Being a rubbish collector here is a full-time job.

Things I like about Chilean culture. People are super friendly and open up their lives far more readily than we do. Some people I've met here tell me more about their lives in 10 minutes than people I've known for years at home ever have. I like that they hug each other as part of their greeting. The kissing is ok except that it gives strange men the right to kiss you on the cheek and that's uncomfortable! Chileans have a lot of respect for elderly people and will stand up for them on the bus/train. This also extends to people with disabilities, parents with children or pregnant women. Children are highly valued and are looked after by everyone. Including the guys. It's wonderful to see guys so comfortable and involved with the kids instead of seeing them as some other kind of species. Not that I'm interested in Chilean guys! Can't cook, clean etc. However, they are far more gentlemanly than at home. They open doors, let you on the bus first, serve your food first etc. It's lovely!! Right, I think that will about do for now, I've got to get up for school tomorrow and it's late.