It’s kind of weird to say but life has been the usual here the past week. Life as usual? Living in Chile? Alright!
Saturday night there was a blackout that affected some 10 million people in Chile (some issue with some grid). It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal except for the fact that I was home alone, minus the tweed man who was really sick, doctors had been in the house all day. So when the lights went out he was convinced I had just shut all of them off. The eeriness was only increased by the talk of the NASA satellite that was supposed to come out of orbit and land on Chile (but apparently landed in the ocean near Canada?). Then there were the stories of the giant earthquake that was supposed to strike when the planets aligned last Tuesday. And to top it off I had been watching the Day After Tomorrow (a movie about the end of the world) when everything went black. Cell phones were only working sporadically since I’m sure that everyone was trying to use theirs. And if you knew my Chilean family you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that I couldn’t find a single candle in the whole house (though there were plenty of cigarettes and matches). Luckily, my friend Molly showed up to rescue me. We ended up finding a lone flashlight and trekking back to her house where we lit candles in the kitchen and ate brownies out of the pan and drank Mango sours, it was pretty darling. The lights came back on before bed and all was fine but I still think it’s a good story.
I ended the weekend on the beach with some girlies watching the sunset and eating churros (sooo delicious!) I seriously don’t think I’ll ever get over how beautiful the sunsets are.
Monday was a pretty great day. My littlest sister Natalie had gone in for a check-up at the oncologist. She was diagnosed with leukemia over 7 years ago when she was not even 3 years old. She’s been in remission for almost 5 years now and after her appointment on Monday my mom sent me an e-mail saying that her doctor said she is officially cured. I read the e-mail at least 10 times to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding. I haven’t been homesick at all recently but boy did I want to be home to give her a huge hug that afternoon. So here’s a shout out to you buddah, I’m so proud and so happy for you and promise we’ll celebrate big when I get home!
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| I love you to the moon and back, short stack! |
Wednesday we took the day off from class to take a little trip to Algarrobo, a lovely beach town about an hour and a half south. This town also happens to be the home to the World’s Largest Pool, which we will be returning to in November to celebrate mine and Anna’s 21st birthdays! Anyway, we had lunch on the beach and had a couple hours to wander and take lots of pictures and of course get some ice cream. So serene and the weather could not have been better. We then took a tour of Pablo Neruda’s house, Isla Negra. He built it to resemble a boat so all of the doorways and staircases were super short and skinny. There were tons of seashells (my mom would’ve been in heaven), ships in a bottle, and creepy bug collections. Neruda also collected figureheads, the statues of women and mermaids found on the front of ships, they were so beautiful and unique. My favorite area of the house was where he would invite guests to sit and interview him (little bit of an ego?). The walls from floor to ceiling were like a mosaic of sea rock including quartz, lapizlazuli (Chile’s national stone) and some gorgeous black stone but of course they wouldn’t let us take pictures. The final room had a 7-foot narwhal tusk, no big deal. We capped off the afternoon with a little shopping at the typical locals and headed home.
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| Pablo Neruda's symbol for Isla Negra. |
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| Taking in the beauty of Algarrobo. |
The rest of my week was full of realizing deadlines for final projects (November is going to be busy) but balanced out by booking my flights for traveling after my program! I’ll be traveling through Peru and Bolivia for about 10 days! Oh and I’m headed to Mendoza, Argentina next weekend for a long weekend. Yeah, life is pretty good J I hope all if well in your corner of the world as well!
Cariñas,
Mackenzie
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