Well last weekend was great and a little bit crazy! Here's the break down (i'll add more pictures as they get put up on Facebook.)
Thursday
I had class and then afterwards we went and got terremotos at La Piojera (if you remember they are very powerful Chilean beverages and La Piojera is the first place we all went and drank them when we first got to Chile) with a big group of my gringo friends. For some of them, it is probably the last time I'm going to see them! (So sad, can't believe it!!!) Afterwards Tom, Jess, Claire and I went and got pitas and talked til late.
During the day I procrastinated writing a paper for my Social Movements class. Then of course everything was rushed and panicked (why do I do this to myself??) and I had to write it, run, turn it in, and then show up for the "CIEE Re-Entry Workshop" which just means that most all of the gringos (except those with tests) met up at the Program Office and we talked about what its going to be like going back to the U.S.
Turns out there is such a thing as reverse culture shock which occurs when you go back to your own country and its usually must worse than the actual culture shock of coming to the foreign country! Considering I don't think I experienced "culture shock" when I came to Chile.. I'd like to keep it that way for the way back! But basically what I learned is that there is a "honey moon period" where you come back and see everyone you've missed and eat cheeseburgers and your mom's cooking and everything is happy. But then eventually people will stop wanting to hear about your time in Chile and you'll start to miss Chile and you'll see how everyone has changed in the last 6 months, and also how you personally have changed from the experience.
Basically I'm hoping this doesn't happen to me, obvoiusly, but the workshop was actually really enjoyable and we talked about how this last semester has shaped our view of ourselves as Americans and of the American culture (suprisingly the concensus was that it has made us more okay with being American, something that I would have betted against 5 months ago.)
After the workshop we had our "Cena de Despedida" (Good-bye dinner) with the program, which was sad. They had a slideshow and everything. Afterwards they gave us each our own bottle of wine with a label that says (in spanish) "specially bottled for Piper" or whoever's name. So cute. Hopefully I can bring mine back through customs.
Haha, here is Anwesha trying to get a good photo at the good bye dinner and Mimi, Claire and Tatumn are in the background, photobombing. I made it large so you can really get a good look at Mimi's expression. Haha this is just to give you an idea of the group i'm working with here, haha, they are all clowns.
This is the adventure club! Jess, me, Mimi and Claire. These 3 girls are my favorite gringas/weones (weon(es)= Chilean phrase. it can be a really insulting swear word or it can be a term used between friends, depending on the context, haha)
So after the dinner Jess and I met up with our Chilean friend, Barbara, that we met on the flight back from Patagonia. She took us to a club with live music that was a band with tons of different instruments (drums, trumpets, trombones, clarient, etc) that played really cool dance music. After the band stopped playing, they just played music (we're talking 80's/09's music here: Nirvana, Jet, Rage Against the Machine, also, obviously, lots of Spanish bands that I didn't know.) Fun, but hard to dance to. Like typical Chileans, Barbara and her friends were still going strong at 4:30AM and Jess and I realized there was no way we were going to be able to keep up with them so we called it quits and headed for home.
Also we met some other Gringa girls there (one from Colorado and one from New Jersey, just like jess and I!) and we swapped numbers.
Saturday
would feel comfortable classifying Saturday as one of my favorite, if not my most favorite, day in Santiago so far. A Gay Pride Parade was schedule between 2-5pm and 50,000 people were expected to be in attendance. Jess, Tom and I went to the grocery store and bought some rainbow face paint (it turned out we were pretty much the only people who thought of this, and tons of people later commented on it. Crazy Chileans!) So we painted rainbow stripes, rainbow hearts and I had AM(heart outline)R on my cheek, so it read AMOR (or LOVE in Spanish). Once we got the facepaint on we headed to the parade. I'm not sure if 50,000 people were there, but there was definitely tons! The March closed down the main road through Santiago and we walked maybe 2-3 miles.
Tom, me, Jess, Ruthie, and Claire
Oh I also brought sparkles, so this is me spreading it on all my friends.
This is my face with tons of sparkles, but you can't really tell. haha
"Equales"
I painted Tom's heart, turned out pretty good. But he had an allergic reation to it, so now he has a rash in the shape of a heart on his cheek. pobrecito!! (roughly "poor baby!")
The paint we used. We didn't have paintbrushes so we improvised with Q-tips.
The awesome sweater that I got. It says "Educate in diversity, live in equality"
I watched the guy paint it (from stencil) and it was a "pay what you want" system. pretty neat!
Some drag queens dancing on a roof in Santiago. No big deal I guess.
One of my favorite things about the march, aside from the general atmosphere of awesomeness, was that there wasn't any counterprotesters like there would have been in the US. I thought that was really neat. Another great part was when we decided to stop for ice cream, but the McDonald's had run out of ice cream (we couldn't believe it!) So we went next door and got some delicious fro-yo from a local vendor.
The march ended in front of La Moneda, the main Chilean government building, so we were just milling around, taking it all in, when Tom and I noticed a lot of people walking in one direction. We decided to follow, and promptly made the rest of the group come too, as they led us to a drag queen show/free concert that was set up in the middle of a random road that was blocked off. It was amazing and hilarious. We saw the drag version of Adele, Beyonce, Cher, Britney Spears, and countless others. By far Beyonce was the best, if you were curious. After the drag show some popular Chilean artists that we recognized from the radio played their stuff, and overall it was just really awesome.
Afterwards we went to the Telepizza (just Tom, Ruthie, Jess and I at this point, everyone else had bailed) which is just like a VERY crappy, but cheap pizza chain here. We managed to stay at the telepizza until 11pm, just chatting, and then we met up with a bunch of gringos at a bar in Bellavista (a neat neighborhood in downtown Santiago.) We were mostly just killing time until 3AM because at 3 Ruthie's dad's show started. (Fun fact about Ruthie's host parents: While her dad is a married, straight man, he does drag shows on the weekends. For some ungodly reason the shows start at 3AM, so we had never been to one, but we figured this was probably our last chance.) So at 3 we headed over to the show.
The first thing I noticed was that there were about 5 girls, in total (out of maybe 100-200 people.) But the show was great. It was well done and funny and just great. There were some VERY fabulous people there and we had a great time. After the show we stayed later to dance, although none of us could even hope to compete with some of these gay guys, they had dancing skills! I think we threw in the towel around 5:30AM and i got into bed around 6. (We're turning Chilean, maybe?! haha)
Ruthie's dad is the one in white
Sunday
Sunday was obviously a slow day. I woke up around 10 and met Jess and our Gringa friend that we met at the bar on Friday at an eco-farmer's market. It was super cool. All sorts of crafts made from recycled goods and tons of organic food (Free samples!!) It was really neat. We wandered around there for awhile and then headed over to a bar in the neighborhood to watch the fútbol match (soccer game) between two of Chile's best teams. It was really fun to be with all the passionate Chilean fans watching, although I, of course, hold not have cared less about the outcome. Jess and I walked home after the game (about an hour walk) and stumbled upon the hotel that we stayed at our first night in Santiago. It's funny because we had no idea where we were those first days, so it was funny to find it and know exactly where we were.
When I got home I was rightfully exhausted. I ate dinner with the fam and then laid on the couch by Cristobal and *tried* to watch the last Harry Potter movie in Spanish. What really happened is that I completely fell asleep.
Well that's my weekend. I'll add more pictures when I can, sorry it was so long and picture-less!
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