Today I gave my final presentation for my Study Abroad Seminar class. The task was to describe in 15-20 minutes how my semester in Chile has affected me, what I’ve learned and experienced and what I’ll take away from it. Saying that it is hard to articulate these things would be the understatement of the century and provides a serious dose of nostalgia. Surprise surprise I talked for 35 minutes and had tears in my eyes when I finished.
Our director passed out sheets today explaining how difficult “re-entry” to home can be, trying to verbalize to everyone back home what happened to you in the last 4 months can be frustrating, isolating and quite frankly shocking. And I believe it. A couple of us were talking today that we’re so grateful that we didn’t do an external program because if we had to go back to “life as usual” at school without one another to talk to when we’re going through Chile withdrawal we would probably be some pretty lost souls. I don’t mean to sound dramatic, I’m just trying to explain what’s been going through my head the last couple days.
As difficult as it is to believe that our time here is very little we have not been wasting a single moment in the past week.
Last Thursday was Thanksgiving, as all of you know, and while Chile doesn’t celebrate this wonderful day of feasting our university put on a dinner for all of us, our families and our professors. Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday (probably because my mom is a killer cook and my grandma makes enough pie to feed a small army…which I guess you could call my family….anyway J ) so I was worried that the Chilean version wouldn’t measure up but I was pleasantly surprised. I missed the stuffing and pumpkin pie and my host family couldn’t make it but we made a little “orphan” table and had some great conversation. It was the warmest Thanksgiving I’ve ever experienced (right around 80F) which made for some great picture taking. I found myself very thankful for the people that surrounded me this year.
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| Chilean Thanksgiving without mayo, score. |
On Friday I went to this great seafood restaurant in Concón with my family for dinner. This is the first time we’d been out to eat since I’ve been here so it was really fun. We didn’t leave the house until after 8 and didn’t pick a restaurant til a little before 9 so by the time our food came I was starving but it was worth the wait. I’m not a huge seafood person but when your dinner comes out of the waves that are crashing underneath your stilted restaurant, you try something new. I ordered pastel de jaiba which was basically shredded crab in this kind of creamy sauce with a flaky pastry on top. It was divine. We also had mango sour and wine, I felt so grown up J One of my dad’s tennis buddies is living with us indefinitely. My host dad is 35 and this guy is 19 so my host parents refer to him as hijo and joven. My dad’s daughter Cata was also with us for the weekend so my parents thought it was awesome that all 5 of their “kids” were out with them. They kept making jokes that it seemed like so many but our little bizarre family still wasn’t as big as mine back home.
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| Candid taken by one of my sisters. |
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| My little bro who we call Poopy. He has officially entered the terrible 2's as demonstrated by our time at the restaurant. |
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| Me and my sisters Cata and José. |
On Saturday I made my second trip to the beach town of Maitencillo. It was kind of a crummy day but we had lunch at this cute café with great sandwiches and sat on the boardwalk talking for a while. If nothing else it was a great way to evade homework.
Saturday night our art and culture prof invited us to an espectáculo at the Quita Vergarra, which is this great park near my house that has a giant stone stage that kind of reminds me of the Grand Stand at the state fair. The show was a Chilean group called Los Tres accompanying the Santiago ballet. The music was really interesting and the dancing was awesome. We all enjoyed it a lot more than we expected to I think. Here's a video of it, not the best quality but at least you can get a taste for it.
Monday we went to the beach to celebrate Anna’s 21st and after nearly 4 months of living in Viña I finally got in the ocean, the waves were strong and it was cold but we had a great time and made a total scene, as always.
Tonight a small group of us ventured back to the sand dunes to watch the sunset. The ascent was quite comical but once we got to the top, the view was more than worth it. I can’t say how much I will miss nights like tonight.
Cariñas,
Mackenzie
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