A Very Merry Christmas Update

My time in Chile is rapidly approaching its halfway point. I have been here for 127 days, and in those days, which have gone by at an alarming pace, we've gone through Labor Day, Chilean Independence Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and finally, Christmas.

Christmas in Chile is certainly different than Christmas in the States, but there are also some definite similarities. For starters, stores put out their Christmas goods in October. Just like in the U.S, shops are eager to move on to the next holiday. In fact, I've already seen some Easter decorations. On the other hand, Christmas does feel a little less commercialized here- even if the difference is very small.

Like in America, many people-most, in Chile- go to a Christmas Eve service, which typically starts at about 8:00. Unlike in America, it would be almost unheard of to have dinner before 8:00. This means that we need to sit through a mass and find our way to a relative's house before we can have dinner. And before we can eat, of course, we need to deal with Santa.

Santa exists! Or, I should say, the idea of him exists here in a way similar to that in the United States. Santa, called "Viejo Pascuero," passes from house to house just like in the States- drawn, of course, by a team of flying reindeer. But while Santa wiggles his way down chimneys in the Northern Hemisphere, here he is content to climb in through windows, or, if he is in a big hurry, just chuck the gifts onto the roof and hope that the owners have a good ladder.

And while kids in the U.S. are tucked in bed and sleeping so that they can be sure that Santa will come, kids here do quite the opposite: They leave their houses in hoards in the middle of the night and actively hunt down Santa, who I assume is trying not to succumb to heat stroke (remember, it's summer in Chile).

My host brother helping the kids look for Santa

While we were outside, we were lucky enough to run into a typical Chilean treat: Chinchineros, or Chilean one-man bands. They always have a bass drum and cymbal, but are known to wield accordions and/or harmonicas. The two that we found marching around in the middle of the night just had the drums and cymbals. This video is from Youtube. I couldn't get the video that I took to work here.

These are the ones we saw

After their fruitless hunt (full of screams of excitement at every airplane), the kids return to their houses, where they find that Santa has taken advantage of their absence and already climbed in and back out the window, leaving lots of gifts behind.

After the kids spend the next hour or so opening gifts, people generally remember that it's 1:00 in the morning and that they're starving, and they sit down to Christmas dinner. Our dinner consisted of turkey with mango sauce and a great deal of seafood. It was all very good.

After everyone has had their fill, they make their way home, often arriving in the early hours of the morning- in our case, at 5:30.

Christmas day is much less eventful. In my family, they do a "secret friend" exchange, where each person gets one other person a gift. I like this way of doing it, as it really cuts back on the typical and unnecessary excess of Christmas. This is often followed by a family lunch and then relaxing outside, either by the pool or at the beach.

I was assigned to get Javiera, my host sister, a gift.

Wishing you all a happy holiday season and a good, healthy New Year.

100 Days

Some interesting statistics:

Days: 100
Weeks: 15
Days it's rained: 2
Earthquakes: More than I can keep track of
Amazing experiences: See above

I've now spent just over 100 days in Chile, which puts me at about the 1/3rd mark of my exchange year. Seeing that in writing is startling- how could I already be 1/3rd of the way done with such an awesome adventure. Time is really flying by.

Admittedly, not very much has happened since I got back from Patagonia. I'm returning to the lazy days of summer, during which I spend a lot of my time in the 90+ degree weather sitting outside by the pool. Now that school is coming to an end, I'm done with college applications, and my Spanish has improved 100-fold, I can really relax.

Last week I celebrated an American-style Thanksgiving with my host family and some other exchange students. In addition to being an opportunity to get together and have a nice meal, this was also a massive learning opportunity for me, as I needed to cook for fourteen people. I started cooking two days in advance, and by Sunday afternoon I had make apple cake, pumpkin pie, stuffing, cranberry sauce, seasoned oyster crackers, mashed potatoes, gravy, chocolate chip cookies, and. of course, a big, beautiful turkey. This was my first time undertaking such a cooking expedition solo. I think that my mother is even more proud than I am.

Proud Father

Listo para comer con amigos

 In a different-but equally harrowing- adventure, yesterday I took public transportation by myself for the first time. You might think that 100 days is a long time to live in a city of 7 million people without once using public transportation by myself, but I've never really needed it before. Now that summer is here, I have a lot more free time and less people to drive me around. So I took a taxi to the local mall, walked around for a couple of hours, and then got a bus back home. Or, "mostly" back home would be more accurate. I got off at the wrong stop. Thankfully, I knew where I was and walked the twenty minutes back to my house. Overall, It was a good experience.

The frequent earthquakes were something that really interested me before I came to Chile. I had never felt one before arriving here. If you're one of the regular readers, you might remember that there was a 6.6 earthquake here on my first day in Chile, which, coincidentally, was one of the days it rained. Since then, there have been countless earthquakes (Chileans would call them temblors, like tremors, but they would definitely be called earthquakes in the U.S.), but I actually haven't felt about half of them. I can be sure that the ones that I didn't feel actually happened, though, because the interesting thing about earthquakes is that they're loud. I can always hear them before I feel them. They start out as a low rumbling sound, a lot like thunder but coming from underneath you. Then there's the sound of rattling glass. After that, they sometimes die away, but other times they turn into some definite shaking. The first one that I felt rocked the car that I was in backwards and forwards. There was  another one just a couple of hours ago, actually.

Over all, I'm doing really well. I'm not homesick, although I think spending Christmas away from my family will be tough. But it will be still be nice, having such a great, loving host family.

Perfect timing.